2.515 or that sinister ease to forget

21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations against Colombian unionists (1986-2006)

Escuela Nacional Sindical Human and Labor Rights Unit

Guillermo Correa Montoya Researcher

Medellín, Colombia July 2007 © ESCUELA NACIONAL SINDICAL, 2006 Calle 51 Nº 55-78 Tel: 513 31 00 Fax: 512 23 30 Correo electrónico: [email protected] www.ens.org.co Apartado Aéreo 12175 Medellín, Colombia 2005

Director General José Luciano SanínVásquez

Director Académico Luis Norberto Ríos Navarro

ISBN:

Fotografía de carátula:

Impreso en papel biodegradable fabricado con fibra de caña de azúcar.

Este documento se ha realizado con la asistencia financiera de la Comunidad Europea. Los puntos de vista que en él se exponen reflejan exclusivamente la opinión de la ENS y, por tanto, no representan en ningún caso el punto de vista oficial de la Comisión Europea.

Con el apoyo de: Contenido

Introduction ...... 7 Colombia, the most dangerous place in the world for unionists . . . 8 A History of Oblivion, Protest, and Bullets ...... 10 Before the oblivion, a violence with its own names ...... 11 A quick shot at a nascent movement ...... 13 The founding bloodshed and the mobilized resistance . . . . . 14 Fatal coincidences: From United Fruit to Chiquita Brands and the banana worker massacres ...... 22 Of multiple victimizers and sinister relations (1986-1990) . . . . . 29 Selective deaths (1991-1994) ...... 35 Bullets that reinstate the founding ghost (1995- 1997) ...... 39 The unfolding of crude and disperse violence (1999-2002) ...... 47 From tactical changes in the violence to the overvaluing of the statistics (2003-2006) ...... 53 Sinister alliances and cynical responses ...... 59 The impact of the bullets. Anti-union violence in numbers . . . . . 63 Workers struggles and selective assassinations, a map of bullets and resistance ...... 69 Final conclusions ...... 69 The unforgotten names ...... 79 List of the Colombian unionized workers who have been victims of assassinations, 1986-2006 ...... 79 

Around the year 1998 or so in the municipality of San Onofre –in Sucre—, a good friend of mine, Georgina Narváez Wilches, and other friends, decided together to create the union of municipal workers of San Onofre, and after several meetings and complying with all the requirements, we had everything ready, the thing is that our friend Georgina, who was going to be the president of our union, due to her dedication and leadership, went to the city of Sincelejo to register the union on November 21, and that same day, at night, upon returning from the task of registering the union, she was assasinated in her house. The assasination happened a few days after the general mayoral elections, that year, Luis Saleman was elected. That was the historiy of our union, after that day none of us wanted to meet again and think about the organization, we never even found out if the union was registered or if its registry was rejected. The year after Georgi was assasinated, her father died of sadness, as he never got over it, and the rest of her family decided to leave their property behind and move to other cities. Recounta by a friend of Georgina Cartagena, Colombia September 2006



Introduction

Almost twenty years have passed since they killed him, and during those twenty years, every month, every week, I have felt that I have the unescapable duty, not to avenge his death, but yes, at least, to tell about it. (….) It’s possible that this is useless, no word will be able to resuscitate him, the history of his life and death will not give a new breath to his body, it will not restore his laughter, nor his immense bravery, nor his convincing and vigorous style of oratory, but by all means I need to tell it. His assassins remain at large, every day they are more numerous and more powerful, and my hands cannot combat them. Only my fingers, with each keystroke, can recount the truth and denounce the injustices. I will use his same weapon: words. Why? For nothing, or for the most essential and simple: so that it can be known. To extend the memory of him a little bit more, before the definitive oblivion arrives.

The Escuela Nacional Sindical, workers across the country have suf- due to its concern for the difficult fered. It has published annual reports human rights situation of unionized analyzing the advances and setbacks workers, has over the last 16 years of the situation of unionists’ human carried out the tasks of research, rights, supported by rigorous studies distribution of information, and de- of information that is classified in the nouncement of the violations against human rights database of the ENS, life, liberty and physical integrity that called Sinderh.

1. Héctor Abad Faciolince, El olvido que seremos, Bogotá, Planeta, p. 254.

  Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical

This publication has been writ- the spaces and intervals that still need ten as a contribution to the recovery to be defined, we present our homage and dignification of the memory of to all the victims in this publication, those 2,5152 men and women who as our contribution to the struggle have lost their lives exersizing their against the oblivion to which some fundamental right to union orga- want to condemn them to. nization, in a country that severely punishes the exersize of that right, Colombia, the most while the violators get confused in dangerous place in the the delayed, historical panorama world for unionists of violations, which allows them In regards to the human rights to disguise themselves in a cape of of unionists in the country, there are impunity, in which the truth ends up complex paradoxes and deep con- becoming fiction, justice becomes an tradictions between what is the law, agreement to forget, and reparation what is the reality, and what is said in becomes resignation and forgiveness. the media about that reality. On one At the same time, this document is hand, we can say that the institutional a denouncemet of the prolonged si- legal framework of the country is lences that the Colombian state has amenable to human rights. Colombia maintained with respect to a wave of has ratified and included in its 1991 violence that could be also called a Constitution many important inter- political genonce, which remains in national treaties that protect human absolute impunity. rights as well as the universal spirit There are many blank spaces in and norms that underly those rights.3 this history; some victims will not be In the realm of labor, the Colombian able to be named, due to the forgetting state has ratified several conventions of their bodies. However, despite all of the International Labor Organiza-

2. Following an exhaustive search to recover information, and a rigorous process of research and verification, we present a review of 21 years of assassinations of Colombian unionists, expanding this information with partial statistics that we have recovered for the years 1986- 1990. It is important to state that some of these statistics do not coincide with statistics that were published in past occasions, since the effort to recover information has led us to revise some of the consolidated statistics. This task of research and analysis of the indices of homicides is registered in the Human Rights Database of the Escuela Nacional Sindical. 3. See: Constitución Política de Colombia, Title II, Chapters 1,2 y 3, referring to fundamental rights. 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations  tion (ILO),4 including those that refer persistence of an anti-union culture that to fundamental labor rights. keeps characterizing the Colombian Paradoxically, this favorable nor- union movement as allies of the guer- mative framework and the existence rilla as well as barriers to the economic of a series of institutions that should progress of Colombian companies and advocate for the effective protection the country in general. of human rights, contrasts with a These statements can be irrefut- humanitarian crisis marked by sys- ably confirmed by the annual human tematic, permament, and selective rights reports of the ICFTU (Interna- violations of the rights to life, liberty, tional Confederation of Free Trade and personal integrity of Colombian Unions)5 which shows that during unionists. These violations take place the last seven years (1999-2005), in the general context of impunity, Colombia has registered the highest which corroborates the fragility of number of human rights violations our democracy and the distance that against unionists in the world. Ac- exists between the legal country and cording to the information provided the real country, where human rights by the ICFTU on the dimensions of are permanently violated. anti-union violence and in particular The union movement is suffering homicides, Colombia has accounted a grave humanitarian crisis, expressed for between 57% and 88% of all ho- by the 2,515 unionists assassinated micides against unionists worldwide. in the last 21 years; the fact that on These statistics place the country in average, annually, more than half of the shameful position of being the the worldwide assassinations against most dangerous place in the world to unionists occur in Colombia; and in the carry out union activity.

4. Colombia has ratified 60 of the 187 Conventions expedited by the ILO. Among the most important are Conventions 87, 98, 154, and 151, which refer to union freedoms and the protection of the right to organize; Convention 26, related to the setting of minimum wages; Convention 95, on the protection of salaries; Convention 138, on the minimum age of workers; Convention 182, on the elimination of the worst forms of child labor; Convention 105, on the abolition of forced labor; and Conventions 98 and 111, which refer to equality in pay for male and female labor, and employment and occupational discrimination. 5. The ICFTU is part of the new International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), since 2006. 10 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical

Homicides against unionists worldwide and in Colombia

Number of homicides Number of homicides Percentages Year Worldwide Colombia % 1999 140 80 57 2000 209 137 66 2001 223 197 88 2002 213 186 85 2003 129 94 73 2004 145 96 66 2005 115 70 61 Source: Information provided by the Human Rights Department of the ICFTU and the ENS database

A History of Oblivion, ages that place unionists in the camp Protest, and Bullets of the enemy, and that also cover the The history of labor struggle in victimizers with a semantic protection Colombia is also the history of a that defies their characterization. selective violence that infuriates the This text will not try to present union movement and infuses it with a chronological history of the union pain, resistance, and bullets. With the movement in the country or provide same capacity that workers leraned an inventory of the tragic events that to create unions as the most logical have accompanied this movement. way to defend their rights, the vic- Our contribution is oriented towards timizers learned to design strategies the revindication of the memory of the to liquidate those unions. Th early victims who marked –and continue to installation, distribution, and insti- mark— the trajectory of a movement tutionalization of a perverse image that persists and resists all the diverse of union activities became perhaps intents to annihilate it. In this sense, it is the first strategy that justified the important to review history, to be able to systematic practice of liquidation, corroborate with accuracy that despite using the rhetoric of the threat of an the countless armed conflicts that have insidious enemy that places obstacles taken place in Colombian national his- in the way of the country’s economic tory, the goal of annihilation of union development. This practice was car- action has a historical continuity which ried out during the entire 20th century, is independent of these wars, and which creating a bloody tradition fed with is embodied by countless figures of libels and artificially constructed im- death, which have ended up giving the 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 11 union movement an existence marked According to the research carried by bloody episodes in a history held out during this time, the forms, mo- together by pain and resistance. dalities, and intensity of the violence In a short review of the history, against unionized workers have varied. between chronological breaks and In addition, the contexts and strategies gaps, we can confirm that the lack of of the victimizers have transformed recognition and murderous responses and the geography of the violations has to voices and actions to reclaim rights moved towards new territories. How- has been a historical constant, since ever, these transformations, instead the times of the first intents to con- of taking away from the credibility of form a union movement. This history, the thesis that the Colombian union old or recent, of the violence against movement is a victim of systematic the Colombian union movement is violence, it corroborates it, by showing marked from one extreme to the other that the long tradition of human rights by oblivion and injustice. violations against unionist cannot be explained by one sole context or con- Before the oblivion, a juncture, and can be explained even violence with its own names less as a specific result of the Colom- Since 1991, the Escuela Nacional bian internal armed conflict. Sindical has registered and catego- Through observing these changes, rized cases of violations to the life, and according to the registered ho- liberty, and personal integrity of micides, we have established five unionists all throughout the country. characteristic periods in the recent In those 17 years, the ENS database history of Colombian unionism since has registered 8,231 cases of human the founding of the CUT in 1986, rights violations, separated into 2,245 as well as three periods before this homicides, 3,400 death threats, 1,292 time. In first place, we characterize cases of forced displacement, 529 ar- the period between 1986-1990 as a bitrary detentions, 192 assasination at- time when the violations were con- tempts, 208 harrasments, 159 kidnap- centrated in the state of Antioquia, pings, 137 dissappearances, 37 cases due to the mafia, military, legal, and of torture, and 34 illegal searches. political violence there, for the mas- After recuperating the information, sacres committed against the banana we have recently incorporated 270 workers in Uraba and the selective as- cases of homicides committed during sassinations, for which reason we have the years 1986-1990. called this time period Of multiple 12 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical victimizers and sinister relations. A and the wide-reaching publicity cam- second period stretches from 1991- paign emphasizing these statistics. 1994, which we have named Selective In addition we analyze three mo- deaths, particularly characterized ments that occurred befote the found- for the implementation of selective ing of the CUT, in a brief recount of homicides against union leaders and the history of the union movement and a strong presence of state sponsored the sinister presence of the violence violence. A third period, between in its formation. We initially review the years 1995-1997, we call Bullets the moments before the construc- that reinstate the founding ghost. In tion of the union movement, and the this period there is a worsening of quickly instituted strategy to labor the territorial dispute in the region conflicts usted by business owners of Uraba and there are massacres and the government, a moment which of agricultural sector unionists in a we name A quick shot at a nascent violence marked by the violent ac- movement. Secondly, we present the tions of guerrilla and paramilitary massacre of the banana workers in groups. The fourth period, which 1928, a historic milestone that has stretches from 1998-2002 has been marked the existence of Colombian named The unfolding of crude and unionism and which expands to haunt disperse violence, which coincides the growing movement in the follow- with the Andres Pastrana administra- ing years, during which the movement tion, in which there is an uncontrolled becomes institutionalized, despite er- growth in the indicators of violence, a rors and violence. We have named this steep increase in homicides, and the moment The founding bloodshed and displacement of violations against the mobilized resistance. Thirdly, we unionists towards new territories. Fi- have reviewed a moment before the nally, the fifth period, between 2003 founding of the CUT in which the long -2006, coincides with the first term process of anti-union violence against of the Uribe administration, and we the banana workers in Uraba begins, have named it From tactical changes in a context of permanent tensions, in the violence to the overvaluing of confrontations, and territorial disputes the statistics. In this period, we are which go on until the decade of the presented with a setting of strategic 90s. We have named this period Fa- changes in the modalities of the vio- tal coincidences: From United Fruit lence, particularly characterized by to Chiquita Brands and the banana the drop in the homicide statistics worker massacres. A quick shot at a nascent movement

At the beginning of the 20th in which the country directs its efforts century, and specifically with the de- towards the consolidation of a national velopment of transportation systems economy. The intention of the state –largely river and sea based– and of was to develop the incipient industries the first small manufacturing indus- and concentrate its iniciatives on the tries (food, beverages, and textiles, creation of a domestic market. In this among others), the first groupings period, workers’ struggles begin to be- of salaried manual workers6 began come tainted with blood and thus the to organize. The first unions were identity of Colombian union becomes formed, and with the unions came the strongly linked to violence. strike as a tactic to demand compli- In one of the first artisans’ strikes, ance with labor rights, and the figure which occurred in Bogota in 1919 and of violence as a response to these which was characterized by Mauricio strikes also surfaced. In the decade Archila as a protest against the min- of the 20s, the union organizations istry of war’s contracting of foreign begin to strengthen, during a period firms to make Army uniforms, the

6. The birth of the working class in Colombia, according to Mauricio Archila, traces back to the middle of the 19th century, when the country, withouth a clear economic model, begins to orient its economy towards an emphasis in exports, which means that the artisans must defend themselves against the free exchange rate. In this period, the first associations to defend workers’ interests appear. Later, at the end of that same century, manual workers created mutual aid associations with the particular goal of improving their precarious conditions. Although some isolated strikes occurred during this period, these organizations did not have a political character in a strict sense.

13 14 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical

Administration of Marco Fidel Suarez way of preventing it from entering in opened fire on the striking workers, to the national scenario”. leaving a toll of several people killed, In 1927, after oil workers in Bar- injured, and detained. This would rancabermeja declared a pacific strike, not be the only or the last time that bullets once again became the solution the government and business owners to the conflict. While the workers or- utilize weapons as tools to solve labor ganized a tribute to the mayor leaving conflicts. Equal force was used against office, the police entered their meeting later strikes, with indeterminate num- hall and opened fire, leaving several bers of arbitrary detentions. There are workers dead. The government would multiple examples, thus it is sufficient respond by declaring illegal the work- to review just a few to strongly corrob- ers’ movement and jailing its principal orate that the intention to annihilate leaders, including the union leader the union movement has been an on- Raul Mahecha. going strategy for those who consider One year later, the workers of that movement a threat to the country. the United Fruit Company would go In 1924, during the strike of the mu- on strike, presenting a modest set nicipal trolley company of Bogota, a of collective bargaining demands in striking worker was murdered by a hopes of improving their precarious manager of the company. Other strikes working conditions. The response of that took place in 1925 ended with the business owners and the govern- hundreds of workers in jail or fired, ment was to fire indiscriminately at and with business owners refusing the workers, creating a tragic incident all attempts to negotiate. As Archila which became one of the milestones in affirms, “it seemed as they preferred the founding of the Colombian union to annihilate the working class as a movement.

The founding bloodshed and the mobilized resistance “[...] esperando un tren que no llegaba, más de tres mil personas, entre trabajadores, mujeres y niños, había desbordado el espacio descubierto frente a la estación y se apretujaban en las calles adyacentes que el ejército cerró con filas de ametralladoras. - Señoras y señores – dijo el capitán con una voz baja, lenta, un poco cansada-, tienen cinco minutos para abandonar el lugar. 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 15

La rechifla y los gritos redoblados ahogaron el toque de clarín que anunció el principio del plazo. Nadie se movió. - Han pasado cinco minutos –dijo el capitán en el mismo tono-. Un minuto más y se hará fuego. José Arcadio Segundo, sudando hielo, se bajo al niño de los hombros y se lo entregó a la mujer. “Estos Cabrones son capaces de disparar”, murmuró ella. José Arcadio Segundo no tuvo tiempo de hablar, porque al instante reconoció la voz ronca del coronel Gavilán haciéndoles eco con un grito a las palabras de la mujer. Embriagado por la tensión, por la maravillosa profundidad del silencio y, además, convencido de que nada haría mover a aquella muchedumbre pasmada por fascinación de la muerte, José Arcadio Segundo se empinó por encima de las cabezas que tenia enfrente, y por primera vez en su vida levantó la voz - ¡Cabrones! –gritó-. Les regalamos el minuto que falta. Al final de su grito ocurrió algo que no le produjo espanto, sino una especie de alucinación. El capitán dio la orden de fuego y catorce nidos de ametralladoras le respondieron en el acto. Pero todo parecía una farsa. Era como si las ametralladoras hubieran estado cargadas con engañifas de pirotecnia, porque se escuchaba su anhelante tableteo, y se veían sus escupitajos incandescentes, pero no se percibía la más leve reacción, ni una voz, ni siquiera un suspiro, entre la muchedumbre compacta que parecía petrificada por una invulnerabilidad instantánea. De pronto, a un lado de la estación, un grito de muerte desgarró el encantamiento: ‘Aaaay, mi madre.’ Una fuerza sísmica, un aliento volcánico, un rugido de cataclismo, estallaron en el centro de la muchedumbre con una descomunal potencia expansiva. José Arcadio Segundo apenas tuvo tiempo de levantar al niño mientras la madre con el otro era absorbida por la muchedumbre centrifugada por el pánico. Muchos años después, el niño había de contar todavía, a pesar de que los vecinos seguían creyéndolo un viejo chiflado, que José Arcadio Segundo lo levantó por encima de su cabeza, y se dejó arrastrar, casi en el aire, como flotando en el terror de la muchedumbre, hacia una calle adyacente. La posición privilegiada del niño le permitió ver que en ese momento la masa desbocada empezaba a llegar a la esquina y la fila de ametralladoras abrió fuego. Los sobrevivientes, en vez de tirarse al suelo, trataron de volver a la plazoleta, y el pánico dio entonces un coletazo de dragón, y los mandó en una oleada compacta contra la otra oleada compacta que se movía en sentido contrario, 16 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical

despedida por el otro coletazo de dragón de la calle opuesta, donde también las ametralladoras disparaban sin tregua. Estaban acorralados, girando en un torbellino gigantesco que poco a poco se reducía a su epicentro porque sus bordes iban siendo sistemáticamente recortados en redondo, como pelando una cebolla, por las tijeras insaciables y metódicas de la metralla. El niño vio una mujer arrodillada, con los brazos en cruz, en un espacio limpio, misteriosamente vedado a la estampida. Allí lo puso José Arcadio Segundo, en el instante de derrumbarse con la cara bañada en sangre antes de que el tropel colosal arrasara con el espacio vacío, con la mujer arrodillada, con la luz del alto cielo de sequía, y con el puto mundo donde Úrsula Iguarán había vendido tantos animalitos de caramelo. Tratando de fugarse de la pesadilla, José Arcadio Segundo se arrastró de un vagón a otro, en la dirección en que avanzaba el tren, y en los relámpagos que estallaban por entre los listones de madera al pasar por los pueblos dormidos veía los muertos hombres, los muertos mujeres, los muertos niños, que iban a ser arrojados al mar como el banano de rechazo. [...] Cuando llegó al primer vagón dio un salto en la oscuridad, y se quedó tendido en la zanja hasta que el tren acabó de pasar. Era el más largo que había visto nunca, con casi doscientos vagones de carga, y una locomotora en cada extremo y una tercera en el centro. No llevaba ninguna luz, ni siquiera las rojas y verdes lámparas de posición, y se deslizaba a una velocidad nocturna y sigilosa. Encima de los vagones se veían los bultos oscuros de los soldados con las ametralladoras emplazadas. Después de media noche se precipitó un aguacero torrencial. José Arcadio Segundo ignoraba dónde había saltado, pero sabía que caminando en sentido contrario al del tren llegaría a Macondo. Al cabo de más de tres horas de marcha, empapado hasta los huesos, con un dolor de cabeza terrible, diviso las primeras casas a la luz del amanecer. Atraído por el olor del café, entró en una cocina donde una mujer con un niño en brazos estaba inclinada sobre el fogón. Buenos – dijo exhausto- soy José Arcadio Segundo Buendía. Pronuncio el nombre completo, letra por letra, para convencerse de que estaba vivo. Hizo bien, porque la mujer había pensado que era una aparición al ver en la puerta la figura escuálida, sombría, con la cabeza y la ropa sucias de sangre, y tocada por la solemnidad de la muerte. Debían ser como tres mil- murmuró - ¿Qué? 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 17

-Los muertos -aclaró él – debían ser todos los que estaban en la estación. La mujer lo midió con una mirada de lástima. “Aquí no ha habido muertos” dijo “Desde los tiempos de tu tío, el coronel, no ha pasado nada en Macondo” -Eran más de tres mil- fue todo cuanto dijo José Arcadio Segundo – Ahora estoy seguro que eran todos los estaban en la estación.7

The confused massacre of the ba- recreated by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, nana workers in the city of Cienaga, Ricardo Rendon, and Jorge Eliecer Magdalena state, in 1928, has become Gaitan, among others. According to one of the milestones of the founding the different versions, there were nine of the Colombian union movement. As or thousands of murders; box cars Mauricio Archila has said, “perhaps transported the cadavers; the workers there is no incident more painful yet were the ones who fired or they were at the same time so subject to fiction- drunk at the time. Many versions that alization in the history of the country incorporate different rumors are avail- than what happened the night between able, describing a massacre or a simple December 5th and 6th in Cienaga, Mag- confrontation, from a diffuse image to dalena”.8 shocking violence. However, this event Something more than 10,000 work- has become, beyond the verifiable his- ers without any labor rights, a company torical truths, the founding image of the –United Fruit – without any legal ob- history of Colombian unionism which ligations due to its method of sub- is part of the collective memory of the contracting, a month-long strike, and country’s workers. rumors of assistance by a government This fact would mark the grow- functionary who never arrived were ing tendency of the dramatic history the elements of the scenario in which of labor struggles in Colombia and a massacre, distorted by memories and the insidious presence of violence as political interests, took place. The gaps a way of regulating the actions of a in the history of this event have been union movement that had to forge its filled by the imagination and power way while the State and business own- of the bitter memory which has been ers obstaculize its existence.

7. Gabriel García Márquez. Cien años de soledad. Ediciones CÁTEDRA, Letras Hispánicas, 2000 , pags 417 -430 8. Masacre de las bananeras, diciembre 6 de 1928, Revista Credencial Historia. Bogotá. septiembre 1999. No 117 18 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical

After the massacre of the banana the efforts –converted into war– of the workers, which some authors have Conservative party to retake power called a heroic episode, the union after the assassination of the presi- movement began to experience a dential candidate Jorge Eliecer Gaitan series of changes, transformations, exacerbated the tendency towards and reconfigurations that would last violent actions. During this period, throughout the 20th century, until the traditional union movement was it established itself in the midst of forced back into acting clandestinely recognition by the state, obstacles, and illegally, while conservative fac- illegality, enemies, persecutions, bul- tions with ties to the Catholic church lets, and diverse forms of resistance. founded a new union confederation, After the fateful year of 1928, a type the UTC. of political transition began to occur. The following years were marked The Liberal party came to power and by the establishment of the National with this change; a complex process Front, a relative calm, an economic to legalize the union movement began upturn, and in particular the unprece- to unfold, however this official rec- dented growth of the union movement. ognition was tied to strict demands This growth took place through the and controls. During the first term of consolidation of unions representing the Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo admin- a wide sector of professional middle istration (1934-1938), the process of class workers, including teachers, the institucionalization of the union bank workers, health care workers, as movement began, and during this well as independent workers. At the period the CTC, the first trade union beginning of this period, the CSTC confederation, is created. However, was formed, after the CTC expelled the support of the national govern- the Communist-influenced faction ment was linked to a series of controls from its structure. The growth of the which limited union freedoms and the union movement was marked by an in- capacity to collectively bargain, and creasd in strike actions and, just as in which restricted union organization earlier years, confronted by violence to the company level.9 and repression. The State responded In the period from 1945-1957, the to the strikes with laws to strengthen country entered into an epoch ironi- company-level union organization and cally known as ‘The Violence”, due to regulations which tied strike actions to

9. Juan Bernardo Rosado, Sindicalismo actor social en medio del conflicto, p. 9 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 19 the rulings of arbitration tribunals. Ministry and FEDETA, which was Although the union movement supposed to arrive on Monday”, af- grew to historic levels, from a union- firmed Luis Sierra. “For that reason, ization rate of 5.5% of the economi- we thought that the presence of sol- cally active population in 1959 to diers and the arrival of bulldozers 13.5% in 1965, the response by the was strange. I spoke with Coronel State to the movement’s growing Valencia Paredes that day and ex- demands was marked by bullets and pressed by concern. ‘I know what repression of all forms. The case of you mean, but I have orders, which the cement workers in Santa Barbara, are to get this cement out at whatever Antioquia in 1963 is characteristic of cost’, he answered me”.10 this period. At 5:00 in the afternoon of that On Saturday, February 23, 1963, same day, the factory workers tried to thirteen people, including many block the exit of the bulldozers which unionists who worked at the El Cairo were loaded with cement and soldiers, cement factory were massacred in and the coronel gave the order to open the municipality of Santa Barbara, fire. According to union leader Gonza- Antioquia by the Army. According lo Alvarez, “at first we all thought they to Luis Sierra, then President of the were rubber bullets, but the moment union, a few days before the massacre, when we saw our friends fall down the union had gone on strike after the dead or injured, there was no doubt company refused to discuss the work- left in anyone’s mind that the massacre ers’ demands. The strike was carried was carried out intentionally, and was out with the intention of not letting prepared in advance”. the stocks of cement be removed from The soldiers fired at the cement the factory, and as the Presidnt of the workers, at health care workers, and union remembers, the governor of the at local residents that were observing state of Antioquia during this time the events. The house of one of the – Fermando Gomez Martinez – had strikers, which doubled as the union ordered that the cement be removed office, was bombed with tear gas, and even if it is over the lifeless bodies of the ten year old daughter of one of the the workers. union leaders, Maria Edilma Zapata, “We waited to hear the response was killed as she ran out of her house of the compnay, through the Labor fleeing from the tear gas. The work-

10. Roberto Rubiano La masacre de Santa Bárbara in Tribuna Roja. February 1976 20 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical ers reiniciated the attack with sticks union confederations were suffocated and stones, but after about an hour by mechanisms of repression, and and a half, the unionists Rafael Gon- the union movement’s errors became zalez, Pastor Cardona, Israel Velez, costly for any person who had sympa- Ruben Perez, and nine other people thy for the workers’ demands. were dead. At nightfall, the soldiers Some exemplary cases of violence searched the houses of the unionists during this period were the assasina- and detained several of them. tion of the president of the CTC in The years after the dismanteling 1976, the death of coal workers due of the National Front in 1974 were to company negligence in 1977, the marked first of all by the assuming wave of repression against the partici- of power of President Alfonso Lopez pants in the 1977 national strike, and Michelsen during the period 1974- the increase in assassinations against 1978, followed by Julio Cesar Turbay unionists in the Uraba region during (1978-1982) and Belisario Betancur the decade of the 80s. The following (1982-1986). Secondly, the period was narratives generally reflect the fun- marked by a deep economic repression damental aspects of the anti-union on a global level which in Colombia violence in this historical moment. spurred the reduction of salaries, low On February 15, 1976, Jose Raquel imflation, and fiscal cutbacks. In -ad Mercado, President of the CTC was dition, this period was marked by the kidnapped and later assasinated on creation of highly repressive regimes April 19th of that same year by mem- that used the premise of security to bers of the M-19 guerrilla. The union instiutionalize a “state of siege” for leader was judged at a political trial prolonged periods, during which all of held by this guerrilla, and was con- the movements and social leaders who victed of treason against the workers came from the left were persecuted. and the union movement and of being During these Presidential peri- supportive of the bosses’ interests.11 ods, the union movement lived new The CTC retells this event in this way episodes of state repression, violence, on its web page: and destabilization. As a response to “Despite the fact that so many of their demands and protests, the only the members of the CTC Executive response was repression in all of its Committee, CTC federations, and forms, hidden negligence, and bullets. CTC affiliate unions have been as- The national strikes promoted by the sassinated, the assassination of the 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 21

CTC President, Jose Raquel Mercado controlled the Coltejer, Fabricato, was shocking and caused general up- Cervunión, Cementos El Cairo, Ce- roar. The assassination was commit- mentos Argos, Tejicondor y Vicuña ted by the M-19 guerrilla movement corporations, were responsible for on April 19, 1976, after holding the this catastrophe. As Hernan Taborda, union leader captive for two months. President of the Mine Industry Union Following this act, other union lead- of Antioquia at that time recalls, ers were assassinated on different “For Industrial Hullera and the occasions, including the Vice Presi- government, the life of a miner is dents Victor Manuel Almanza and worth less than a sack of coal. For I Emilio Vasquez Valencilla and Jose don’t know how many years, we de- Israel Arias, President of the Tolima manded improvements in the work- Workers’ Federation –CTC; Hernar ing conditions and in the maintenance Usuga, President of the Uraba Work- of the carts and rails. We constantly ers’ Federation –CTC; and Libardo sued the labor authorities, whose job Acevedo, President of the Valle del it was to make the company comply Cauca Workers’ Federation –CTC”.12 with occupational health regulations, On July 14, 1977, a large number inspect the pits, and test the quality of workers also were killed in an un- of the ventilation. They never lis- precedented tragedy that took plae in tened to us. Today more than 100 the municipality of Amaga, Antioquia workers are dead, and on top of that, state. The negligent and arbitrary ac- they blame us, but they are the only tions of the Industrial Hullera com- ones responsible”.13 pany, which was at the time property Several days before the tragedy, of the business consortium that also the miners had denounced the lack of

11. In the De la urbe digital newspaper, it was said “One year later, on February 15, 1976, Jose Raquel Mercado, leader of the CTC, was kidnapped and executed, for being considered a traitor to the interests of the Colombian union movement, for being, according to them, on the bosses’ and not the workers’ side”. Tuesday, November 8, 2005 Antesala histórica de la toma del Palacio de Justicia By Henry Amariles* [email protected]. In the editorial of Tribuna Roja, No. 20, March 1976, written by Francisco Mosquera, it is affirmed, “The kidnapping of Mercado does not in any moment fit with the forms of struggle that the Colombian working class should carry out in order to unmask, isolate, and expulse from the ranks of the union movement the scabs and sell-outs”. 12. Taken from the CTC web page: http://www.ctc-colombia.com.co/historia.php 22 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical safe conditions and the repeated viola- “In Uraba, the Army is permit- tions by the company of the collective ted by law to intervene in labor con- bargaining contract, which was signed flicts”.14 after a 53-day long strike that same Like an absurd or sinister coinci- year. On June 26th, the workers had dence, the decades of the 80s and 90s voted to go on strike once again if the in Uraba were colored by a dramatic company kept violating the contract, panorama of anti-union violence with and during the morning of July 14th, scenes, victimizers, and cadavers the union leaders, who were prohib- which mirrored the historic massacre ited from entering the mine, organized of the banana workers in 1928. a protest to denounce the rising tem- In a brief contextual digression, perature in the mine. However, all of it is important to recall the fact that their observations were ignored by the in 1959, the United Fruit Company, company and the miners were forced which later became Chiquita Brands, to go to work. During the morning began a process of developing banana of July 16th, when both shifts were production in the region of Uraba, down in the mine working, there was which spurred a series of changes in a huge explosion, causing more than regards to the labor, social, military, 100 deaths, including children and and political situation. At the same disabled people. The next day, the time that the banana plantations grew, Labor Minister ordered that troops violent territorial disputes reappeared, occupy the region so that production which would last for over three de- would not be halted. The compay tried cades, converting the region in a type to evade its responsibility in regards of battlefield, with multiple actors and to the events, and blamed the workers different interests.15 themselves for causing the accident. Without a doubt, the greatest change in the political, social, and Fatal coincidences: From workplace environments, discount- United Fruit to Chiquita ing the developmento of agrarian Brands and the banana projects in the zone, was the emer- worker massacres gence of unions that represented the

13. Jorge Enrique Robledo Lo de Amagá, un crimen de la empresa y el gobierno. In Tribuna Roja No 27. August 1977 14. Coronel Adolfo Clavijo, Operating Commandant No 11, report presented by Sintrabanano and FEDETA to a meeting with the national government, , Medellín February 13, 1986. 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 23 workers of the banana industry. This was guided by the Revolutionary union movement would becomje one Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, of the most important actors in the and Sindijornaleros was oriented by region. The precarious conditions in the National Liberation Army, ELN. which thousands of banana workers This fact became over time one of labored, added to the widespread the principal factors of anti-union poverty, countless social and politi- violence, in response to changes on cal problemas, and the lack of local the war front, and involving a complex development, stimulated the creation set of victimizers. of several unions who could act as These shifts in the conflict deter- regulators and negotiators. It should mined the position of the enemies and also be mentioned that the growth of situated the victimizers,16 in such a the union movement also coincided way that during the 80s, paramilitary with the general abandonment of the groups attacked the unions with the region by the government, which did aquiecence of the military. Years later, not improve the situation caused by after the EPL negotiated its entry into an insufficient presence of State in- civilian life, and the growth of the stitutions and permanent territorial Hope, Peace, and Liberty political disputes carried out between guerrilla movement, the guerrilla of the FARC and paramilitary groups. began to attack the unions, while the The workers’ organizations were attacks by paramilitaries and militar- permeated by the influence of guer- ies continued. rilla gorups, and due to this it can be The coincidences, far from be- noted that the creation of Sintagro was ing speculations or fictional occur- spurred on by the Popular Liberation rences, allow us to understand how Army, EPL, just as Sintrabanano the patterns of anti-union violence

15. See Urabá, Región o territorio, María Teresa Uribe and Urabá, región, actores y conflicto 1960-1990 , Clara Inés García. 16. To understand more thoroughly the military and political conflicts in the region, Clara Ines Garcia in her book Urabá, región, actores y conflicto 1960-1990 identifies a first period which she denominates “the regional periphery, characterized by a military confrontation between two actors – guerrilla and state – in a territory located outside of the banana zone. After the decade of the 80s, the relationship changes as well as the significance of the con- flict between State, guerrillas, paramilitaries, workers, and companies, and the center of the action is moved to the banana growing zone, going beyond a purely military conflict, and involving new actors. 24 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical endured and became entrenched over Chiquita Brands;17 the odd relations of time. Between distortions, impunity, the Army with paramilitary groups, justifications for war, and stigmatiza- and the paramilitaries themselves, be- tions, a form of violence is mapped come the mediators of labor conflicts, out in which business owners and as well as perpetrators of systematic the State hide in the shadow of the annihiliations (in the midst of the confusion, and the paramilitaries or upheaval caused by confrontations other irregular armed groups become between guerrillas and paramilitaries) determining factos in labor conflicts. of union leaders and workers. They This is what happened in the case of were named as subversives, slandered

17. The news agencies DPA, AFP, and REUTERS, in an article published on March 16, 2007, say that “The US based transnational company Chiquita Brands International Inc. will pay a fine of 25 million dollars, after a judicial plea, for having made a series of payments to the AUC paramilitaries in violation of the anti-terrorist laws of the US.” This violation of the anti-terrorist laws took place when the company made secret payments of $1.7 million dollars to the AUC between 1997-February 2004 through its ex-subsidiary in the South American country, as the US Prosecutor Jeffrey Taylor said in a report. Chiquita said that it was “obliged” to make those payments to the AUC, to “protect the life” of its employees in the banana producing zones of Uraba and Santa Marta, Colombia, due to supposed threats by paramilitaries and guerrillas, according to Executive Director Fernando Aguirre in a press release. However, press reports said today that they did not just try to “protect” workers, but to also encourage paramilitary groups to attack union leaders and other “agitators” against the commercial interests of the company. For this reason, according to legal documents, the transnational company paid almost $2 million dollars to illegal armed groups in Colombia. According to the current investigation , the prosecutors affirm that the company also made similar payments to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). In 2001, the US government categorized the AUC as a terrorist group, meaning that the company acted in full knowledge, with direction from the central office of the company in Cincinnati, Ohio. However, the accounting books were altered to hide these payments to the AUC, which began in 1997 in a meeting with the then paramilitary leader Carlos Castano. The ex-branch of Chiquita in Colombia, Banadex, supposedly made more than 100 payments to the AUC in two regions, Uraba and Santa Marta (north); where it had banana production operations. These payments were made directly or indirectly almost every month, and the advice of lawyers to discontinue the practice was ignored, according to prosecutors. A BBC report said that the agreement signed by Chiquita Brands, one day after the company declared its guilt, ends this judicial process in which it has been involved, which began three years ago when the US Justice Department opened an investigation on the topic. The same press release said that in 2004, after acknowledging the existence of these deals with illegal groups, the company sold all of its investments in Colombia to a local producer for more than $50 million dollars. 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 25 against, and persecuted by all of the after his disappearance, his body was actors, and became the victims of found with signs of torture in a loca- a violence which was hidden in the tion close to the Voltigeros battalion. justifications of war and territorial dis- Luis Alfonso was fired after a labor putes, without other causal factors. conflict, after which he was later rein- It is clear that the scenes and stated and named to the post of union contexts are different from those of representative. 1928, yet the characteristics of the • On October 22, 1983, Jose Carva- violence, the business practices, the jal was assinated in the village of role of the Army, the misinformation Currulao. The worker, who aspired and distortion, and the attitude of the to become a member of the Execu- government are transformed into focal tive Council of Sintagro, was also points that show the central elements a victim several months before of of the prolonged anti-union violence, an illegal search of his house by threaded with impunity, confusions, the Currulao police. and distortions. Just as in 1928, the • On July 2, 1985, the members of fictionalization of the accounts ended Sintagro Oscar Salazar and Jorge in shrouding the explanation for that Ortega were assasinated. tragedy in relativism and confusion, • On July 14, 1985, Argemiro the massacres of the banana workers Giraldo, leader of the union of in the 80s and 90s have been lost in agricultural workers of Antioquia, the fog of oblivion and surface-level Sintagro, was assasinated, along explanations, which justify the anni- with Bernardo Franco, leader of hilation of unions with the rhetoric of the Communist Party. According subversion and in images of forgive- to the reports, the two men had ness and obscurity. For this reason, we been detained by soldiers of the recount some of the bloody events that Pedro Nel Ospina battalion of San took place during this time, and unlike Pedro de Uraba after a political the acts of 1928, we have been able to event, and in the confines of the recuperate the names of the victims. battalion, they were tortured until On July 15, 1983, Luis Alfonso they died. Gonzalez, leader of Sintagro, was as- • On July 15, 1985, while more than sassinated. This union leader was sick 250 members of Sintagro were at the time, and was abducted out of gathered in a union assembly in his house by paramilitaries. Four days the union office in Currulao, the 26 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical

Army attacked the unionists with • On March 27, 1986, Walter Roldan, machine guns and grenades. Five a member of Sintagro in the El unionists and an ice cream vendor Tres village, was assasinated by were killed and 35 workers were paramilitaries. injured. According to the reports, • On April 13, 1986, Julio Cesar that year the Army had begun Santacruz, a teacher affiliated to an intense campaign to force the the Antioquia Teachers’ Associa- workers to renounce their mem- tion ADIDA, was assasinated. bership in the union, which the • On April 13, 1986, Simeon military considered a guerrilla Ramirez, a member of Sintagro union. Workers who dared to hold and Sintraexpoban and worker at union meetings were detained by the “La suerte” farm, was assas- the military for two or three days, sinated. or their houses were continuously • On April 13, 1986, in the mu- raided. nicipality of Apartado, Aurelio de • On November 24, 1985, Edilberto Jesus Ortiz, member of the Sintra- Pastrana, worker at the “Las Mar- banano grievance committee, was garitas” farm and member of the assassinated. company worker-employer com- • On April 20, 1986, Ruben Pineda, mittee, was murdered, along with President of the union of agrar- ElkinGiraldo, Eucaris Gomez, ian workers Sintraagrarios, was Felipe Mena, and Antul Jimenez, murdered by paramilitaries in the who worked at the “Villanueva” municipality of Apartado. farm. • On April 23, 1986, Pedro Leon • On November 30, 1985, the office Pineda, leader of the fruit work- of Sintagro in Currulao was at- ers’ union Sinaltrafruit, was as- tacked five times by grenades and sassinated in the village of Zungo machine guns. Due to the attacks, in the municipality of Apartado. five workers were murdered and He worked in the banana export 22 people were injured. company Proban. • On February 27, 1986, Jose Eli • On April 26, 1986 Antonio Fer- Pelaez, Francisco Jiménez and nandez, Pedro Ezequiel Gil and Mario Taborda, members of Sin- Juan Lopez, members of Sintagro, tagro and workers of the “Villan- were assasinated. They were mur- ueva” farm, were killed. dered on the “Balboa” farm in the 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 27

municipality of Turbo. That same assasinated. Ismael worked at the day, Luis Villadiego, Gabriel Vil- “Agripina” farm and was killed in ladiego, Gabriel Holguin, Alberto the presence of his wife and son. Builes, and Alvaro Usura, affili- • On September 6, 1986, Enrique ates of Sintagro, were disappeared Bello and Manuel Arroyo, workers in the municipality of Mutata. at the “Balboa” farm and members • On June 28, 1986, Saul Villada, of Sintagro, were assassinated. member of the Sintagro grievance • On October 15, 1986, Jacintos Mo- committee, was assasinated in lina Hernandez and Victor Manuel Currulao. Urrutia, leaders of Asoimbra, were • On July 14, 1986, Luis Felipe assassinated. They were killed by Murillo, Luis Enrique Espana, MAS (Death to Kidnappers) in the and Luis Carlos Torres were mur- municipality of Turbo. dered. They were active members • On November 11, 1986, Jose of Sintagro and were killed by Maria Imbet Arrieta, leader of the paramilitaries in the “Mali” farm union of day workers of Antioquia, in the municipality of Apartado. Sindijornaleros, was assasinated in • On August 14, 1986, Ismael Guti- the municipality of Apartado. errez, afiliate of Sintagro, was

Of multiple victimizers and sinister relations (1986-1990)

I kept secret for many years this bloody shirt, with stains that turned black and shiny with time. I don´t know why I kept it. It´s as if I wanted to have it there like a pin prick which would prohibit me from forgetting every time that my conscience falls asleep, like an aid for the memory, like a promise that I had to avenge his death. On writing this book, I burned it, as I had learned that the only vengeance, the only memory, and maybe the only possibility to forgive and forget is to tell what happened, and nothing more. That same Tuesday the 25th, in the morning, the President of the teachers union of Antioquia, Luis Felipe Velez, was assassinated as he was walking in to the office of his union. My father was indignant. Many years later, in a book published in 2001, Carlos Castaño, the head of the paramilitary groups for over ten years, confessed to how his group in Medellín, with intelligence provided by the Army, assassinated, among many other victims, the Senador Pedro Luis Valencia in front of his small childre, as well as the President of the teachers union Luis Felipe Velez. He accused both of them of being kidnappers. At midday that Tuesday, as my mother tells it, they arrived together to the office, and my father wanted to hear the news about the murder of Luis Felipe Velez, but in all the radio stations they only talked about soccer. For my father, the excessive reporting on sports was the new opium of the people, which kept them asleep without ideas of what in fact happened in the real world, and he had written about this several times. With my mother as witness, he kicked the speakerand said with rage, “The city is falling apart, but they only talk about soccer”. My mother says that he was in a strange mood that day, with a mix of rage and sadness, almost to the point of losing hope.

29 30 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical

They were involved in these things when his most beloved disciple, Leonardo Betancur, arrived in a motorcycle. My father greeted him warmly, and asked him to come up to the office to sign the latest press release of the Human Rights Committee (he had written it the night before and had already drafted a clean copy), and he invited him to join him in attending the funeral service of the assassinated teacher, just three blocks away in the union office. They left on foot, talking, and my mother and I entered the office, since I needed to prepare for a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Colseguros building, which would start at 6 PM, and my mother had to work on her own affairs. It was about 5:15 in the afternoon. I didn´t see what happened next, but I can reconstruct it according to what several eyewitnesses say, or what I read in Case File 319 of the First Office of the Mobile Criminal Court, for the crime of homicide and personal injuries, opened on August 26, 1987, and archived a few years later, without arrests or convictions, without any kind of clarity, without any kind of result. This investigation, looking at it now almost 20 years later, seems more like an exersize to cover up the truth and favor impunity than a serious investigation. For example, one month after opening the case, the judge in charge was sent on vacation leave, and functionaries from Bogota were then asked to monitor the investigation, which is to say, to avoid that any serious investigating would be done. My father, Leonardo, and a woman walked from Chile avenue to Argentina street and then turned left, on the north-facing sidewalk. They arrived at the corner of El Palo street and crossed it. They kept walkig until Girardot street. They passed Girardot and on the next corner, they knocked at the door of Adida (Teachers Association of Antioquia), the teachers union. Someone opened the door for them and a small crowd formed in the entranceway, as other teachers were also arriving that moment to find out what was going on. Two hours earlier, the corpse of Luis Felipe Velez was brought to a chapel and a protest meeting was held in the Coliseum. My father looked around in suspicion for the woman who had accompanied them to the office, but she did not spot her at his side, she had disappeared. One of the eyewitnesses says that a motorcycle with two young men aboard headed up Argentina street, first slowly then very rapidly. The men had recently had haircuts, said someone else, with a crew cut that was common on military men and some assassins for hire. They stopped the motorcycle in front of the union office, they left the motor running on the sidewalk, and the 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 31

two of them joined the small group gathered in front of the door, at the same time that they took out their guns from the waistband of their pants. Did my father see them, did he know that they were going to kill him at that moment? For almost twenty years, I have tried to be him in that moment, confronting death. I imagine myself as 65 years old, dressed in a suit, asking about the funeral service of a union leader that took place that morning. If he had asked about the crime that had occurred a few hours earlier, he would have known the fact that Luis Felipe Velez was killed there, in the exact same spot where he was standing. My father looks at the ground, at his feet, as if he wanted to see the blood of the assassinated teacher. He can´t see their faces, but he hears some urgent steps coming close to him, and he feels someone´s jagged breathing at his neck. He lifts his eyes and sees the evil face of the assassin, he sees the smoke that blasts from the barrel of the gun, hears at the same time the gunshots, and feels a hit to his upper chest. He falls onto his back, his glasses fall off and break, and from the ground, while he thinks about for the last time, I am sure, in all of his loved ones, with his ribs twisted in pain, he manages to confusedly see the mouth of the revolver which shoots fire once again, finishing him off with several shots to the head, the neck and once again in the chest. Six shots, which means that one of the assasins emptied his revolver. In the meantime, the other killer follows Leonardo Betancur inside the union office and kills him there. My father did not see his beloved disciple die, in reality, he already could not see anything, or remember anything, he bled and bled, and in just a few moments his heart stopped and his brain shut down. At that moment I could not cry. I feel a dry sadness, sin tears. An absolute sadness, but unbelieving, incredulous. Now that I write, I am capable of crying, but in that moment a sensation of stupor invaded me. An almost serene astoundment in awe of the power of evil, a rage without rage, a cry without tears, an interior pain that did not move me but paralyze me, an uncertainty that produces stillness. I try to think, I try to understand. I promise him that I will give my life to fight these assassins, yet I remain calm. I am about to fall down, yet I do not let myself fall down. Motherfuckers!, I scream, it´s the only thing I scream, motherfuckers! And inside I still scream the same thing, which is what they are, what they were, what they continue to be if they are still alive: motherfuckers!1

1. Héctor Abad Faciolince El olvido que seremos. Bogotá, Planeta, pp. 224-259 32 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical

…In the decade of the 1980s, the quality of the strike increased, in general terms, in reference to the average number of workers involved in each protest. At the same time, the violations with respect to worker-employer relationships also became more serious than before. The legislation aimed at ending the excessive duration of strikes advanced, as well as did the dirty war, a wave of intolerance was in motion, and all of this caused a sharp decline in the duration of labor conflicts and in their impact on the national economy.2 In 1986 and after a series of chang- unionists took force. At the same time, es in the configuration and restruc- the narcotrafficking phenomenon and turing of the Colombian trade union the growing and confused alliances confederations, the Unitary Workers’ between mid-ranking Army officers Central CUT was born. The confed- and some regional politicians, added eration appears in a context marked to the collaboration or intermediation by heavy socio-political violence, of the paramilitaries, began to shape the large-scale incursion of the drug a set of sinister relations. Inside these trafficking phenomenon, the growth forces, an anti-union perspective, an of paramilitarism, the annihilation anti-guerrilla perspective, and an anti- of the members of the UP political left wing perspective was confused movement, and the demobilization of and intermingled. Although we still the M-19 guerrilla and its posterior do not have exact statistics on the entry into the political scenario. This magnitude of the anti-union violence period also inherited elements from during 1986-1990, which is the period the previous government’s – the ad- that coincides with the Virgilio Barco ministration of President Betancur administration, the analysis of anti- – intents to exterminate the left, the union violence should be understood so-called “dirty war.” As Archila af- within the context of the distinct ele- firms, “once again, the war replaced ments that made up the political sce- politics”.3 nario at the time. The partial statistics It was an epoch marked by mas- that we have on assassinations during sive sociopolitical violence, in which this period show that during these five the strategy to eliminate the left and years, approximately 270 unionists in particular members of the UP and were murdered. The large majority of

2. Álvaro Delgado y Mauricio Archila Neira ¿Dónde está la clase obrera? Huelgas en Colombia 1946-1990, p. 64 3. Archila Mauricio 25 años de Luchas sociales en Colombia, 1975-2000, P. 25 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 33 them were banana workers in Uraba, state of Santander. The assassina- members of the Sintagro, Sintrabana- tions against the banana workers in no, and Sindijornaleros unions. The Uraba were explicitly linked to the teachers organized in Fecode and the consolidation of paramilitary forces in workers of the Union Sindical Obrera the region and the territorial disputes (USO) were also victimized. The state that began to take place during this of Antioquia is where the homicides period. were concentrated, followed by the

Year 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 Total # of Homicides 37 67 78 50 38 270

Source: Sinderh, ENS.

Although the anti-union violence same day, the human rights defenders of this period was linked to diverse and unionists Hector Abad Gomez and political, social, and labor factors in Leonardo Betancur were assassinated the country, the manifestations of that as they were entering the funeral ser- violence do not diverge from the logic vice for Luis Felipe. Leonardo was a of a systematic and selective violence, member of the Board of Directors of and a historical intention to annihilate the ENS and a member of the political or exterminate the union movement. group Firmes. Some notable crimes of the period On January 15, 1988, at 10 AM, were the assassination of the USO Manuel Gustavo Chacon, was assassi- leader Gustavo Chacon in Barran- nated in the city of Barrancabermeja, cabermeja, the triple assassination of Santander state, by seventeen shots the human rights defenders and union fired from a machine gun. He was a leaders Luis Felipe Velez, Hector leader of the USO union and a well Abad Gomez, and Leonardo Betancur known cultural worker. Manuel had in Medellin, and the massacres against repeatedly denounced the arbitrary banana workers in Uraba. actions and human rights violations On August 25, 1987, Luis Felipe committed by some members of the Velez, President of the teachers’ union Colombian military in the Magda- of Antioquia (Adida), was murdered lena Medio region. According to the in the union’s office in Medellin. The USO, 34 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical

“at the end of the decade of the highway, close to the Honduras and La 80s and at the beginning of the 90s, Negra farms, and they were massacred the campaign of annihilation con- in that spot. The unionists were: Omar tinued, in the form of selective as- Ochoa, Iván Darío Molina, Guillermo sassinations. During this period, the León Valencia, José Blanco, Julián physical extermination of leaders of Carrillo, Manuel Cogollo Espitia, Gui- the USO began. From 1988, when a do González Martínez, Bienvenido soldier from the National Navy as- González Martínez, Pedro González sassinated Manuel Gustavo Chacon Martínez, Enrique Guisado Miran- Sarmiento until now, more than 80 da, Rito Martínez Reyes, Gilberto oil workers have been massacred”.4 Meneses Pineda, Joaquín Mendoza, On March 4, 1988, 21 banana José Mena Sánchez, Santiago Ortiz, workers affiliated to Sintagro were Rodrigo Guzmán, Manuel Durango, assassinated. According to various Alirio Rojas, José Pineda, Natanael versions, the workers were forced to Rojas, Néstor Marino Galvis y Abel get off a bus on the Turbo-Medellin Meneses.

4. Colombia: la penalización de la actividad social. Unión Sindical Obrera. July 15, 2004. Selective deaths (1991-1994)

The panorama before the elec- model which would exascerbate social tions of 1990 presented a country in woes and undermine labor rights was a profound political crisis, after the beginning to be implemented. This assassination of Luis Carlos Galan, was a contradiction marked by the the heightened terrorist attacks by beginning of the Presidential admin- narcotraffickers, and the murder of istration of Cesar Gaviria after the two opposition Presidential candi- assassination of the Presidential can- dates, Bernardo Jaramillo on March didate Luis Carlos Galan on August 22, 1990, and Carlos Pizarro on April 18, 1989, the development of the new 26, 1990. Colombia was fragmented National Constitution of 1991, and the by multiple violences. At the same adoption of the neoliberal economic time, the country began a political model which would translate in eco- debate which led to the Constitutional nomic reforms to open markets and Assembly out of which the most im- negative changes in social and labor portant political pact in the country policies. The laws that reformed labor materialized, namely the 1991 Politi- and social security law, Law 50 of cal Constitution. 1990 and Law 100 of 1993, respec- In general terms, this period was tively, are the changes that had the characterized by a paradox, since on largest impact on the country’s work- one side a Constitution which seemed ing population. to be the road towards a peace agree- This implementation of the neolib- ment was being constructed, and on eral economic policies without market the other side, a neoliberal economic regulation would cause a lowering

35 36 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical of workers’ incomes, unemployment 1994. In that year, the number of homi- without end, and many layoffs of state cides decreased by 46% in comparison employees due to privatizations and to 1993. In this context, the unions of fiscal cutbacks. In this context, union agricultural workers, teachers, con- protests were considered to be terror- struction workers, electric workers, ist acts and the relations between the and municipal employees were the state and the workers were annulled. most affected. As Consuelo Ahumada states, cited Another determining characteris- by Archila, “the justice system lost tic of this period was the war against sight of its prime objective – nar- agricultural workers and specifically cotraffickers – to instead penalize the against banana and palm oil workers. workers”.1 The violence against the unionists From January 1, 1991 to December affiliated to Sintraproaceites in San 31, 1994, 518 unionists were assas- Martin, Cesar state and against the sinated – 21 women and 493 men. unionists affiliated to Sintrainagro in During this period, the selective homi- the banana growing region of Uraba cides committed against union leaders was exemplary. In this last ase, the as- and activists stood out as the most se- sassinations were profoundly linked to rious and frequent crime in the entire the territorial disputes that the FARC panorama of anti-union violence. The and the Self-Defense Forces carried behavior of the statistics during these out for control of the state of Cordoba four years reveals a growing tendency and the Uraba region. that presents a significant variation in

Homicides against unionized workers in Colombia 1991-1994

Year 1991 1992 1993 1994 Total Homicides 83 135 196 104 518 Source: Human Rights Database of the ENS Union leaders assassinated 1991-1994

Year 1991 1992 1993 1994 Total Homicides 12 33 24 36 100 Source: Human Rights Database of the ENS

1. Consuelo Ahumada, El modelo neoliberal y su impacto en la sociedad colombiana, cited by Mauricio Archila 25 años de Luchas sociales en Colombia, 1975-2000, p. 30 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 37

The table shows us that from 1991 of Apartado in Uraba on January 28, – 1994, 518 assassinations were com- 1993, when the meeting of the CUT mitted. This statistic is equivalent to Board of Directors was taking place. 23.03% of the total homicides commit- One month later, Olivero Molina, ted in the 16 years under study, which General Secretary of Sintrainagro, clearly shows the magnitude of the was assassinated in Medellin on Feb- violations during this period. The vic- ruary 26, 1993. tims were principally form the state of Guillermo Marin, member of Antioquia, where 62.3% of the assas- the Executive Committee of Futran sinations took place, corresponding to – Unitary Workers’ Federation of An- 323 cases, followed by the Santander tioquia, was assassinated in July 1994. state with 42 assassinations and the After leading a meeting in which states of Magdalena and Cesar with 22 several union leaders participated, and 14 cases, respectively. Sintraina- he was shot to death as he left the gro in Antioqua and Magdalena, the office of the Social Security workers’ USO in Santander, Sintraproaceites union. After this assassination, on in Cesar, and the teachers’ unions September 24, 1994, agents from the of Santander, Risaralda, Antioquia, intelligence service of the polie inter- Cesar, and Arauca, affiliated to Fe- viewed Belisario Restrepo, President code, were the most affected by the of Futran, in the organization’s offices violence. in the center of Medellin, in regards The assassinations of the impor- to the circumstances surrounding tant union leaders Guillermo Marin in the death of Guillermo Marin. Hours 1994, and Alirio Guevara in 1992 are later, that same day, five armed men two of the most representative cases who identified themselves as agents of for this period. the national Attorney General’s office, Jesus Alirio Guevara was a mem- broke in to the Futran office and asked ber of the National Board of Directors to see Belisario. When they learned of the Unitary Workers Central (CUT) that he was not there, they fired at the and Vice-President of the National Secretary of Labor Conflicts Hugo Union of Agroindustrial Workers (Sin- Zapata and the Secretary of Human trainagro). He was kidnapped and then Rights Carlos Posada. These events later assassinated in a place known left Hugo Zapata dead and Carlos as Villa Alicia, in the municipality Posada injured. 38 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical

Panorama de homicidios de sindicalistas en Colombia 1991-1995 Bullets that reinstate the founding ghost (1995- 1997)

This period coincides with the government ended his aspirations in administration of Ernesto Samper regards to social reforms. The scandal Pizano (1994-1998) and with Alvaro of the “Proceso 8,000” and the efforts Uribe’s term of office as Governor of made by the government to defend the state of Antioquia (1995-1997). In itself and stay in power undermined general, the political context during all possibility of reforming social this period was fundamentally marked legislation. by the delegitimization of the Samper With respect to human rights, the government due to the accusations period was marked by deep contradic- that his campaign was financed by the tions. On one hand, the government funds of narcotraffickers, as well as by signed Protocol II of the Geneva the increase in guerrilla and paramili- Conventions, it accepted responsibil- tary violence and the deepening of the ity for the massacre of Trujillo and political crisis. began to train Army troops in human Socially, this was a moment of ex- rights norms. On the other hand, this pectations and disenchantment. Even contrasted with the muddled relation- though it was clear that the neoliberal ship of the government with respect economic model would continue to be to the “Convivir” private security applied, Samper proposed giving a cooperatives that were created at the “human face” to the model through his end of the previous administration “social pact.” However, the autonomy and vigorously promoted by the then of the central bank and the crisis Governor of Antioquia, Alvaro Uribe, which challenged the legitimacy of the and the Defense Minister Fernando

39 40 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical

Botero. The “Convivir” were soon governor for the “Convivir,” the in- accused by various human rights or- crease in guerrilla violencem and the ganizations of being at the service of debilitation of the government due to the paramilitaries. corruption scandals, the second period Precisely during this period, the of anti-union violence surfaces, from paramilitary groups gained strength 1995-1997. This period is principally and carried out a bloody wave of characterized by the frequent use violence without precedents in the of the modality of massacres in the state of Antioquia. This violence took assassination of unionists, although place during the mandate of Governor selective homicides do not completely Alvaro Uribe, who cynically defended disappear from the panorama. and prmoted the “Convivir.” In 1997, During those three years, 694 the so-called United Self-Defense unionists were assassinated, which Forces of Colombia (AUC) make their is equivalent to 31% of the number of first appearance, due to the supposed total homicides in 16 years. Leaving unity and coordination between the aside the dramatic rhetoric, this three self-defense forces of Cordoba, Uraba, year period was the bloodiest episode Magdalena Medio and the plains in the recent history of unionism, with region. In this way, the Antioquian unprecedented statistics. 237 unionists model of paramilitarism began to were killed in 1995, 275 in 1996, and spread. The murdered human rights 182 in 1997. defender Jesus Maria Valle summed The massacres in Antioquia and up this moment, affirming that “We specifically in the Uraba region con- are exporting violence, through the stitute the image of terror during a Convivir, to the entire country (…) period which exactly coincides with and the military and the Convivir can the term of office of Alvaro Uribe as be confused due to their uniforms, due Governor of that state. This historic to their offices, due to the vehicles that paradox can be called the first experi- they use...”.1 He was assassinated in ment in hard-handed security policies, his office, on February 27, 1998. due to the cynicism of a governor who In a moment marked by the growth in 1994 tried to legalize armed groups of counter-insurgent paramilitary under the framework of the “Convi- groups, the support of the Antioquian vir” as part of his security strategy.

1. Jesús María Valle, cited by por Juan Esteban Mejía Upegui:“Un vistazo a los años en los que el paramilitarismo inundó de sangre a Antioquia”, 01/31/2007, www.semana.com. 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 41

This second period can be par- unions that are grouped together in Fe- ticularly characterized by the in- code, which suffered 160 homicides. tensification of the violence against Of these organizations, the Association agricultural workers and teachers in of Educators of Antioquia – ADIDA Antioquia; by the disproportionate – appears as the union most affected and unprecedented increase in the by the violence, with 61 homicides number of homicides, and especially registered. The teachers of Cordoba, in the number of indiscriminate mas- organized in Ademacor, were victims sacres; an alarming increase in the of 22 assassinations, those of Cesar in number of death threats; and the grow- the Aducesar union reported 12 assas- ing number of forced displacements. sinated, and the teachers of Bolivar In this period, there is a break in organized in SUDEB were victims the general patterm of human rights of 15 assassinations. It is particularly violations against unionists. These telling that during these three years, violations were concentrated in one Antioquia and Cordoba register the single union – Sintrainagro – in the highest levels of violence, if the sta- Uraba region, Antioquia state, which tistics are compared throughout the suffered the largest number of homi- entire 16 year period. This is due to cides committed against unionists the strategy of territorial disputes and throughout the country. According to paramilitary control which manifested information in the ENS database, of itself during this time. Of the 58 as- the 694 homicides registered during sassinations registered during the 16 those three years, 405 were commit- year period in Cordoba, 21 took place ted against members of Sintrainagro, during the 1995-1997 period, which which equals 58.3% of the total num- equals 38% of the total. And of all ber of homicides. The panorama is the assassinations that have occurred even more alarming if we take into in Antioquia, 47% occurred during account that between January 1991 this period. and December 2006, 668 members of Antioquia is registered as the state Sintrainagro have been assassinated, most affected by the violence, with making this union far and away the 501 assassinations, equalling 72.1% of organization most affected by anti- the total homicides committed in the union violence in the recent history country. The main explanatory factor of Colombian unionism. for this is the worsening of the con- In second place are the teachers’ flict in the Uraba region in Antioquia 42 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical state. The state of Cesar follows with assassinated throughout the country, 34 assassinations, Cordoba with 26, and out of that number, 105 died in Magdalena with 25, Bolivar with 16, massacres committed by armed actors and Santander with 15. A relationship in the banana growing zone of Uraba. between the places where homicides It is necessary to state that the serious are committed and the territories in humanitarian crisis suffered by the which the paramilitaries are consoli- union movement in the Uraba region dating their strength begins to take during that year was a consequence shape. of the implementation of the so-called With respect to economic sec- “armed pacification project” in that tors, as we have mentioned earlier, region. This project was none other the agricultural sector unions and in than the annihiliation of everything particular Sintrainagro are without a and everyone who was tainted by doubt the most affected. However, it the “insurgents,” including left-wing should be noted that the violations are political leaders and union leaders in not concentrated exclusively in that particular. sector. Unionists of the education sec- In 1997 and 1998, the homicides tor affiliated to Fecode were victims against unionized workers drop sig- of 184 assassinations, of which 61 nificatively, going from 275 homicides correspond to teachers affiliated to registered in 1996 to 182 homicides in ADIDA. Unionists from the mining 1997. However, these statistics con- sector were victims of 19 homicides, trast with the increase in the number and unionists in the manufacturing of death threats, which increase by industry suffered 37 homicides. 67% - from 182 to 307 – and the num- Without a doubt, 1996 is the year ber of forced displacements, which with the most anti-union violence in rise from four to 361. The drop in Colombia, in comparison with the assassinations coincide with the less- last 15 years. That year was marked ening of territorial disputes in Uraba, by the greatest number of homicides the rise in homicides and death threats against unionists, the most massacres against union leaders, and with the of workers, and the highest number of appearance of new territorial disputes human rights violations against work- by armed actors. ers. In that year, 275 unionists were 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 43

Homicides, death threats, and forced displacements of unionized workers in Colombia, 1995-1997

Year 1995 1996 1997 Total Homicides 237 275 182 694 Death threats 6 182 307 495 Displacement - 4 361 365 Source: Human Rights database of the ENS

Homicides, death threats, and forced displacements of union leaders

Year 1995 1996 1997 Total Homicides 36 28 39 103 Death threats 4 17 47 68 Displacement 2 47 49 Source – Human Rights database of the ENS

The tables above allow us to ob- the massacres in Uraba, especially the serve the changes in the intensity of statistics on the number of massacres the violations and the changes in their and victims.2 forms, with respect to the transforma- We now present some cases that tions of the contexts. Once the region illustrate the complexity of the ho- of Uraba was “pacified,” the violence micides during this period, and the spreads throughout the country in multiplicity of the victimizers of Co- the same way that the armed conflict lombian unionists. And although we also spreads, impacting more and have affirmed that the massacres of more day-to-day life and the bloody workers affiliated to Sintrainagro are resolution of social and labor con- the some of the most characteristic flicts. In this same time period, selec- human rights violations against union- tive homicides continue, as a way of ists in this period, it is important to intimidating and regulating union observe that at the same time, union activity in the country. It is notable leaders are persecuted for their union that there is no unified information on activity, and that their murders do not

2. The human rights observatory of the Vice-President’s office, in a review of the massacres committed during the period 1993-2004, states that in 1993 14 cases with 79 victims were registered, in 1994 there were three massacres with 46 victims, in 1995, there were 15 massacres and 116 victims, in 1996, 11 massacres and 71 victims, in 1997 seven massacres with 38 victims, and in 1998, two massacres with 15 victims. 44 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical exclusively correspond to the logic of versions, three or four of the vicimiz- territorial disputes and confrontations ers were masked, one was wearing by armed actors. a sweatsuit and green sweater, and One of the cases occurred on the rest were dressed in common September 20, 1995. That day, FARC clothes. According to testimonies, the soldiers stopped a bus with 29 pas- massacre was committed by alleged sengers in an area known as Bajo del members of the V Front of the FARC, Oso in the municipality of Apartado. led by someone called “Papujo.” Ac- The FARC made all the passengers cording to witnesses, the workers had get off the bus, making them lie face asked for protection, but patrols by the down on the ground with their hands Army had ended in January.4 bound. The guerrilla members then During this period, many selec- executed 24 of the workers, while the tive homicidas were also registered, others were injured in the attack.3 sucha as the one which was com- Another massacre was commit- mitted on May 9, 1996. That day, ted against the banana workers of Oswaldo Ovidio Agudelo, leader of the “Osaka” farm, located in the El the Sintrainagro union and the UP Zungo village. They were murdered political party, was shot to death in around 6:30 AM, when they arrived the “El Ganadero” bar, located at 47th to the farm by bus. According to the Avenue and 50th Street in downtown survivors, when they got to about 200 Medellin. Moments earlier, he had meters before the entrance of the farm, participated in a public event in which a group of ten men armed with AK-47 he had announced that once again he and R-15 guns lept out from the veg- was threatened with death. The union etation and told the driver to pull over and political leader was forced to leave the bus. After making the workers get the Uraba region just two days earlier, off the bus, the men began to ask them due to the continued threats against what they did, and in that way they his life.5 began to select some of them. After On the other hand, on March 9, separating out ten men, they began to 1997, in the municipality of Reme- shoot at them. According to different dios, Antioquia, Army troops from

3. Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, third report on the human rights situation in Colombia. 4. Justicia y paz magazine, p. 36, volume 9, No 1, 1996. 5. Justicia y paz magazine, p. 44, volume 9, No 2, 1996 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 45 the Bombona battalion of the XIV Londono, was reported as disappeared brigade, executed six members of the and was buried in an unmarked grave human rights committee of Northeast in the Segovia cementary in order Antioquia and Bajo Cauca. Later, the to create confusion, as the soldiers bodies were presented by the Army as had deliberately placed his ID cards combatants of the ELN who died in besides the body of another victim. battle. One of the vicitims, Nazareno Later, investigations confirmed the de Jesus Rivera, a well known com- identity of Jaime and determined that munity and union leader in the region, he was murdered as part of the same was identified the day of the mas- incident.6 sacre. Another victim, Jaime Ortiz

6. Noche y Niebla magazine No 3, p. 49, March 1997.

The unfolding of crude and disperse violence (1999-2002)

After the complex crisis that the As human rights reports on Colombia country lived through during the show, during this time, rights viola- delegitimized and isolated Samper ad- tions escalated significantly, forced ministration, Andres Pastrana became displacements linked to massacres President in 1998. With his arrival, increased, and the so-called ceasefire the country embarked on another ended up becoming more of an illu- crisis of greater proportions. Utilizing sion than Pastrana’s campaign photo. the semantic game of images, Pas- At the same time, paramilitary groups trana posed for a picture with Manuel proliferated and their actions became Marulanda, commander of the FARC, even bloodier, if that is possible, un- simulating the possibility of peace in leashing a wave of terror in new ter- a country devastated by war. ritories and concentrating its forces With the intention of seeking in extermination any voice that even peace, the Pastrana administration vaguely sounded left-wing. was inaugurated, utilizing a con- Regarding the labor situation, the tradictory strategy. Simultaneously, crisis revealed the weakeness of the while a peace process with the FARC government and the wide impacts of unfolded, Plan Colombia was inaugu- unchecked neoliberal economic poli- rated, which deliberately promoted a cies. Unemployment surged to 19.8% military solution to the war. Without in 1999, the number of people living a doubt, the peace talks ended in in poverty increased as incomes dis- strengthening the armed actors in- proportionately dropped. The national stead of arriving at a possible solution. strikes organized by the trade union

47 48 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical confederations grew in strength and itself in multiple forms. In fact, this the official persecution of the workers’ period presented the greatest increase protests was made even more evident. in the number of murder attempts, dis- In this context, anti-union violence appearances, and kidnappings, among spread throughout the national ter- other forms of violations. ritory, while the official discourse During these four years, 600 Co- tried to confuse it within the complex lombian workers were assassinated, panorama of a diffuse war. 1,292 workers were victims of direct With the beginning of the Pastrana death threats, 70 murder attempts administration and his intent to start with guns and explosive artifacts were peace talks with the guerrilla, the carried out against unionists, and 113 strategy of using selective assasina- workers were kidnapped. In this pe- tions to control and intimidate union riod, selective assassinations against activity in the country resurged with high-ranking union leaders were car- even greater force. And even though ried out as a special strategy to terror- these assassinations appeared in the ize and immobilize union activity. In context of an apparently diffuse and no other period were unionists perse- indiscriminate violence in the middle cuted in such a direct and generalized of an expanding wave of all kinds of way, and at no other time did such a human rights violations, the murders disperse violence affect the bulk of of unionists appear in selective ways the union movement (including union and generally linked to a specific leaders, rank-and-file members, and context of labor conflicts. Anti-union relatives of unionists). The causes of violence was no longer concentrated this violence were mixed up with the almost exclusively in the state of An- armed conflict, union activities, and tioquia. It now extended throughout common crime. the national geography, manifesting 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 49

Violations to life, liberty, and personal integrity of union leaders Comparative table Type of violation 1996-1998 1999-2002 Death threats 198 794 Assassination attempts 23 45 Dissappearances 11 12 Homicides 96 171 Harrassment - 26 Kidnappings 2 23 Torture - 3 Source: ENS Human Rights database

In this period, levels of violence ing to the records in the human rights equal to the tragic year of 1996 were database of the ENS, from 1999-2000, reached, yet in that year the territorial the number of assassinations of union- disputes in the Uraba region partially ists increased in 69%, from 80 homi- explained the exaggerated numbers cides in 1999 to 137 in 2000, and the of homicides that year. However, murders of union leaders increased by during the 1999-2002 period, there is 39% during this same period. From no overriding factor that can explain 2000-2001, the murders of unionized the violence, it is basically a system- workers increased in 45%, from 137 atic and discriminate violence against asssassinations in 2000 to 197 in 2001. unionists due to their union activities, At the same time, the number of assas- a fact which highlights the dimension sinations of union leaders experienced of the anti-union prejudice during an historic increase of 97%, from 32 those years. in 2000 to 65 in 2001. Between 2001 A comparative study of those four and 2002, there was a small reduc- years allows us to observe that dur- tion in assassinations, from 197 in ing this time, the homicidas against 2001 to 186 in 2002, which equals a unionized workers grew more spe- 6% decrease in murders of unionists. cialized over time, with an unchecked The number of assassinations against growth in the years 2000-2001. At the union leaders also dropped by 21%, same time, the assassinations against from 65 assassinations in 2001 to 50 high-ranking union leaders increased in 2002. to historic levels. In this way, accord- 50 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical

Homicides of Colombian unioists, 1999-2002 Year 1999 2000 2001 2002 Homicides 80 137 197 186 Source: ENS human rights database

Assassinated union leaders, 1999-2002 Year 1999 2000 2001 2002 Homicides 23 33 65 50 Source: ENS human rights database

In this period, the state of Antio- Narino with 25. In the other states, quia continues to be the most danger- from 5-20 assassinations were com- ous territory for union activity, with mitted. This unfolding of anti-union 177 homicides of unionists registered, violence under the modality of selec- equivalent to 30% of the total assassi- tive homicides in new territories is one nations. However, during this period, of the particularities that characterize the geography of homicides extends the 1999-2002 period. itself, as new scenarios appear in the Service sector unions were most panorama of violence. This extension affected by anti-union assassinations is linked to the expansion of the para- during this period, in particular educa- military project to new geographic tion sector unions affiliated to Fecode territories, something quite signifi- were those that reported the great- cant if we take into account that over est number of homicides, with 325 50% of homicides were registered unionized teachers murdered, which in Antioquia en earlier periods. The is equivalent to 55% of the total assas- state of Valle del Cauca appears as a sinations during this time. Unionized new scenario of violence, recording workers of the public administration 51 unionists assassinated during the sector were victims of 31 homicides, period, and the state of Santander judicial branch workers suffered 29 continues to register a high number of murders, and health care workers were cases, with 53 homicides during this victims of 32 assassinations. In addi- time. In addition, the violence moves tion, unionized workers of the public towards other states, such as Atlantico utilities sector were also hit hard, with with 22 homicides registered, Cesar 45 assasinations registered, as well as with 28, Magdalena with 23, Norte de agricultural sector unions, especially Santander with 25, Meta with 22 and those of small farmers organized in 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 51

Fensuagro, who were victims of 44 the continous death threats that they assassinations. receieved, and that same day, a group Some of the assassinations that of unidentified people assaulted Jorge’s marked this period embody the di- house and attacked and bound his wife. mension of the anti-union violence According to the CUT, the police did in the country and the depth of its not arrive at the house until 24 hours implementation. Two emblematic cases after the crime took place. These events open and close this bloody epoch –the took place in the context of the national murder of Jorge Ortega in 1998 and strike organized by the confederation. the murder of Aury Sara Marruego at During the 21 days of this same strike the end of 2001. Although the murder in 1998, another eight union leaders of Ortega technically occurred during were assassinated in different regions the previous period, it can be analised of the country. as an emblematic case which closes and On November 30, 2001, at 8:35 opens two especially complex periods AM while he was in transit from his of anti-union violence, due to the dif- residence towards the office of the ferent forms in which it manifested USO in Cartagena, the leader of the itself as well as its direct and forceful USO Aury Sara Marrugo was kid- expressions. napped along with his bodyguard En- On Tuesday, October 20, 1998, rique Arellano. They were stopped by during a fifteen-day national strike several armed men who were riding in organized by the CUT, Jorge Luis three vehicles identified as property of Ortega Garcia was assassinated. At paramilitares who operate in a region the time, he was Vice-President of the under the control of Carlos Castano, CUT. Ortega was also a worker of the the paramilitary leader is accused of Electrificadora de Bolivar for nineteen being the intellectual author of the years, as well as the father of two chil- crime. According to union sources, dren. He was shot six times in the head Castano had promised to respect the and chest, as he was walking into his life of the union leader, yet on De- house in south Bogota. The outstanding cember 5, 2001, he and his bodyguard union work of Jorge Ortega Garcia had were found dead of gunshot woulds converted him into a target of constant with signs of torture. Near the bodies, death threats. On September 22 of that a list of unionists who were targeted year, Ortega and Domingo Tovar, two for assassination by the paramilitary leaders of the CUT, had denounced group was found. 52 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical

Panorama de homicidios de sindicalistas en Colombia 1999-2002 From tactical changes in the violence to the overvaluing of the statistics (2003-2006)

As the Pastrana administration national and international human drew to a close, the country was faced rights organizations, the continuing with an humanitarian crisis of un- neoliberal policies that led to a reform thinkable proportions, in which grow- of existing labor law which severely ing poverty, unemployment without affected Colombian workers, the pro- end, and geographically widespread cess of demobilization and talks with violence mixed with citizens’ discon- paramilitary groups, and reforms to tent and lack of confidence in their the 1991 Constitution to allow the pos- political leaders and their false prom- sibility of Presidential re-election. ises of peace and development. In this Without a doubt, four factors sig- context, the Presidential candidate nificantly marked the union and labor Alvaro Uribe won the elections, with panorama during this period. First of his rhetoric of security, firm policies, all, the labor law reforms incorporated and a military solution to the war. in Law 789 of December 27, 2002, Using a discourse based on secu- eliminated job security for workers rity and and adopting as his image and produced fat profits for big busi- of referente a firm hand, the first ness owners, instead of promoting Uribe administration was particularly job growth. Secondly, the democratic characterized by his “communitarian security policies put unionists on the state” political project. This project side of enemies of national security. was based on the implementation They were observed and treated as of the “democratic security” policy, possible subversives, which translated which was widely questioned by into illegal searchers, arbitrary deten-

53 54 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical tions, and unfounded judicial process- ticular, the government manipulated es against high-ranking union leaders. the use of statistics and responded Thirdly, the paramilitary demobiliza- inadequately to the recommendations tion process along with peace and rec- of the international community in re- onciliation processes were carried out gards to the rights violations against under the supposition that there would unionized workers. be a cease in hostilities, however this One of the most characteristic was transformed into publicity touting aspects of the panorama of violations good results on paper, yet the terror during this period is the significant continued to unfold tactically. Instead drop in the number of murders, in of stopping their anti-union actions, comparison with earlier periods. Ac- the paramilitary groups began to cording to statistics from the ENS recreate new strategies to camoflauge human rights database, there was a the same violence. Another factor was 50.5% reduction in the number of the discovery of sinister alliances be- homicides in 2003 in comparison to tween state intelligence agents of the 2002, which means that the number of DAS and paramilitary groups, with homicides dropped from 186 in 2002 to 94 in 2003. In 2004, the number the intention of murdering unionists. of homicides is roughly the same; al- The terrorific practices shown in the though a slight 2.12% increase is reg- crimes against Colombian union lead- istered, meaning that there were two ers confirmed the denouncements and more murder cases registered in 2004 put into question the than in 2003. This tendency continues In this period, there was a strategic in 2005 with a 27.08% reduction in change in the forms of violence against homicides in comparison with 2004, unionized workers, which can be prin- equivalent to 26 less cases. However, cipally characterized by a decrease in in 2006, there is a slight 2.8% increase homicides, the accelerated increase in in comparison with the year before, detentions, the increase in violations with two additional assassination of the human rights of women union- cases registered. Overall, during this ists, the powerful restrictions to union period 332 homicides were commit- freedoms, a significant increase in ted against unionists, which can be death threats, the increase in crimes divided into 262 men and 69 women. committed by State actors, and the use Of this total number, 88 were union of a variety of strategies to invisibilize leaders, 239 were rank and file union- the magnitude of the violence. In par- ists, and 5 were union advisors. 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 55

Regarding the presumed actors with the statistics from the 1995-1998 responsible for the crimes, according period, when more than 50% of the to the ENS human rights database, total anti-union murders were com- 33 cases were committed by para- mitted in Antioquia. This fact proves military groups, nine by state organ- the relationship between territorial isms, nine by guerrilla groups, 194 disputes and the consolidation of re- by unidentified armed groups, and gional paramilitary groups and the 87 cases without any information. assassinations of unionists, since as During this period, education sector the paramilitaries install themselves unions affiliated to Fecode continue in the territory and exersize control, to be the most affected, with 178 as- the number of assassinations drop, sassinations, representing 53.6% of and as they invade new territories, the the total homicides registered during number of murders begin to increase this time. Agricultural sector unions in those places. In this sense, we can follow, with 36 assassinations, health observe that during this period, the sector unions with 19, electric sector violence is concentrated in states with unions with 18, manufacturing sec- strong paramilitary incursions, such tor unions with 15, and mining sector as the state of Arauca, which equalled unions with nine. the number of assassinations in An- In regards to the geography of the tioquia state in just four years, with a homicides, it is important to state that total of 30 assassinations registered. except for the states of Vaupes, Gua- Norte de Santander registered 18 as- viare, Quindio and San Andres, homi- sassinations, Atlantico registered 25, cides against unionists occurred in all Bolivar 16, Cordoba was the scene of other states. Even though the state of nine murders, Putumayo registered Antioquia continued to lead the list eight, Caldas had the same number, of anti-union assassinations, with 31 and Caqueta registered six. However, murders registered, the participation this new geography does not erase or of this state in the total number of ho- dissappear the old territories where micides declines significantly in com- the violence has historically been con- parison to earlier periods, in which centrated. Even though there are ups 212 homicides occurred in Antioquia and downs, in general, the violence from 1998 – 2002. In the later period, permaneces over time. For exmaple, there were only 31 murders, an even the state of Valle del Cauca registered more drastic drop if it is compared 32 assassinations, an interesting statis- 56 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical tic since in the 16 years studied, this During the Uribe administration, is the first time that a state other than the turns and variations in the general Antioquia occupies the top of the list panorama of human rights violations in anti-union murders. In addition to against unionistsis linked to strategy Valle del Cauca, Santander state also changes of the victimizers with re- registered 18 assassinations and in spect to their actions against union- Cesar state, 14 assassinations were ists, and for that reason, the variations registered. should be understood in the context The reduction in the number of of these tactical maneuvers, in which homicides should be interpreted in anti-union violence gets caught up in the general context of a decrease in a complex strategic fabric. the number of homicides committed These tactical maneuvers have by paramilitary organizations, due been conducted with the goal of to the processes of demobilization, undermining the credibility of the reinsertion and negotiation with denouncements of human rights these groups. At the same time, the violations, creating an atmosphere positive variations of other indica- of confusion, and making it seem as tors can be explained by the changes that the situation of extended and sys- attempted by the guerrilla groups in tematic violence has been solved and the context of a full blown war with that government iniciatives such as the State. The Army offensive has the democratic security policies have led the FARC to regroup, which has been proven to be effective. All of this had some positive repercussions in linked to the fact that these strategies regards to some human rights indica- are supported by a broad-based public tors. For example, the 77% decrease relations iniciative which allows the in kidnappings in 2003 can only be government to divulge its confused understood in the framework of the successes as fast as possible, at the changes in the tactics of the guer- same time generating a favorable pub- rilla violence, since during the years lic opinion and popular legitimacy. 2001-2002, these organizations were During this period, the paramili- responsible for twenty kidnappings tary groups camouflage themselves of unionists. in the social scenario, mimicking

1.. On May 4, 2005, different union leaders in the state of Atlantico were threatened with death by a group called MAS (death to unionists) in a pamphlet which stated “Despite the fact that MAS identifies with the struggle that armed groups are waging throughout national 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 57 social organzations,1 to justify their investigations by agents of the State, actions with a rhetoric in defense of arrests on charges of rebellion against the interests of the community and the the State, presentations in the mass business sector. They have adopted media as if they were guerrilla mem- names such as “Defenders of Cauca’, bers, and then their subsequent release ‘citizens committed to development’, due to an absolute lack of evidence ‘MASIN (death to unionists)’, and against them. In addition, informants “black eagles’, among others, as a and ex-guerrillas are frequently used way of simulating their independence as “witnesses” in the judicial pro- from the paramilitary groups, who ceedings against union leaders. For use these tactics as a distraction to example, there were irregularities in avoid being questioned about or held the case against university professor responsible for these actions. Alfredo de Andreis Correa, and the On the other hand, we can see Human Rights Committee of Arauca a systematic increase in the deten- has regularly denounced the use of de- tions of union leaders beginning at mobilized guerrillas who are members the end of 2002. These acts have be- of the network of informants as “wit- come a new variable in the panorama nesses” in these kinds of cases.2 of human rights violations against The increase in violence against unionists. It is equally notable that women unionists is another charac- the majority of these detentions ex- teristic aspect of this period. In the hibit similar characterists: previous 2003 human rights report prepared

territory, it does not have any kind of link with them, we act on conviction and knowledge”. Similarly, a group that called itself the “Defensores norte caucanos” threatened with death union leaders in the sugar cane sector with the same arguments, through a pamphlet that was distributed in the states of Cauca and Valle del Cauca. 2. To cite various cases, we can mention the detention of Hernando Hernandez, leader of Fensuagro, detained on June 1, 2007, arraigned and presented to the mass media as a guerrilla; the detention of Javier Dorado Rosero, leader of Simana, also arraigned and presented to the mass media as a guerrilla; the detention of Ricardo Santrich Pernett on May 26, arraigned and presented as a guerrilla; and the denouncements made by various human rights organizations related to the use of demobilized guerrillas as witnesses in the trials against Alfredo Correa in Atlantico state and Luz Perly Cordoba in Arauca state in 2004. After it was determined that there was a lack of evidence to substantiate these de- tentions, Profesor Alfredo Correa was assassinated and the agricultural sector leader Luz Perly Cordoba was forced to flee to Venezuela, without being exonerated of the charges, despite the lack of evidence. 58 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical by the ENS,3 a worrying dispro- unionists. In 2004, this violence grew portional increase in human rights by 20%, with 41 additional violations violations against women unionists in comparison with 2003. In 2005, is revealed, with an almost 500% 152 cases of human rights violations increase in the number of violations against unionists were registered, of in comparison to 2002. This level of which 15 were murders of female violence continued in 2004, in fact unionists. In 2006, 86 violations were it increased by 20%. However, over registered, of which ten were murders the following two years, there were of female unionists. Although these changes and reductions in the total statistics show relative fluctuations, number of violations, yet the violence the powerful impacts and increase in continued to cause profound impacts. anti-union violence against women During 2003, there were 160 more workers during this period cannot be violations registered than in 2002, denied, a phenomenon which was not of which 28 were murders of women observed in earlier periods.

Comparative table of violations 1999-2002 y 2003-2006

Type of violation 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Homicides 80 137 197 186 94 96 70 72 Death threats 679 180 235 198 301 455 260 244 Arbitrary detentions 29 38 12 13 50 79 56 16 Source: ENS human rights database

Violations to the life, liberty, and personal integrity of women unionists, 2001-2006

Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Number of violations 56 41 203 242 154 86 Source: ENS human rights database

3. Al respecto véase Cuando lo imposible en términos jurídicos se hace posible en términos políticos, Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos No 14, Escuela Nacional Sindical. Sinister alliances and cynical responses

Without a doubt, another deter- ENS human rights database, it can be mining characteristic of this period is macabrely proven that each one of the the scandalous revelation of links be- union leaders who appear on the list tween members of the DAS – involv- were killed or forcibly displaced due ing high-ranking functionaries of this to constant death threats. Below we institution – and paramilitary groups, briefly reference some of the cases. especially in the Carribbean region of • The cadavers of the Fonseca Cas- Colombia. In 2006, the declarations of siani brothers –Cesar, Rafael, and the ex-director of information systems Ramon– were found severed by a of the DAS Rafael Garcia were widely chainsaw in an unmarked grave published in the Semana and Cambio on September 3, 2003, in the “La magazines. His testimony revealed Montana” farm in the municipality plans to exterminate union leaders, of Ponedora. The three brothers orchestrated by paramilitaries and were unionists affiliated to Sin- some DAS detectives. According to tragricolas, the union of agricul- these denouncements, several union- tural workers of Atlantico. ists were included in a list given by • Saul Colpas Castro, President of functionaries of the DAS analysis Sintragricolas in Atlantico state office to paramilitaries. and Secretary of Agricultural Af- According to information pre- fairs of the CUT Atlantico, was sented by Garcia to the prosecutor’s killed by six gunshots in front office, and cross-referencing that in- of his family on July 13, 2001 at formation with the statistics from the 10:30 PM in the village of Puerto

59 60 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical

Giraldo in the municipality of 17, 2004, accused by a reinserted Ponedera, Atlantico. guerrilla of being a commander of • On October 22, 2002, Victor Ji- the FARC. After being detained ménez Fruto, Vice-President of for a month, he was freed by the Sintragricolas Atlantico, was dis- judges due to a lack of evidence. sappeared in the municipality of According to denouncements Ponedera, Atlantico. This union made by his family and his lawyer leader had replaced Saul Colpas Antonio Nieto, the professor was a Castro, assassinated in 2001. Ac- victim of a conspiracy by the DAS, cording to union sources, Victor and for that reason he refused to let had denounced to the Attorney that institution provide security for General’s office on July 24, 2002 him. that he had received death threats • On January 13, 2004, an envelope on multiple occasions. However, containing a condolence card was the government did not give him left in the office of the Atlan- a sufficient level of protection. tico branch of Anthoc. The card • On Friday, September 17, 2004, the threatened with death the Board university profesor Alfredo Correa of Directors of this union, and in de Andreis and his bodyguard particular, the names of Gilberto Edward Ochoa Martinez were as- Martinez, member of the national sassinted in the middle of the day Board of Directors, Carmen Tor- in a residencial neighborhood in res, member of the state Board Barranquilla. Correa was a socio- of Directors, Alvaro Marquez, logist and agronomist, ex-rector member of the state Board of of the Universidad de Magdalena, Directors, Jose Merino, member member of the Network of Uni- of the state Board of Directors, versities for Peace, and Professor and Angel Salas, member of the at the Universidad del Norte and national Board of Directors, were Universidad de Simon Bolivar. At mentioned. The card was signed the moment of his death, he was by Antonio Uparela Castro and the working on an investigation of dis- letters AUC (United Self-Defense placed people in Bolivar and Atlan- Forces of Colombia) also appeared tico. He had been arrested on June at the bottom. 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 61

Comparative table of violations, 1999-2002 & 2003-2006 Type of violation 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Homicides 80 137 197 186 94 96 70 72 Death threats 679 180 235 198 301 455 260 244 Arbitrary Detentions 29 38 12 13 50 79 56 16 Source: ENS human rights database In this complex panorama, the sinations were marked by a confused triple assassination of union leaders panorama of distortions and frame- in Arauca and the assassination of ups, in which the National Army ma- Luciano Romero, leader of Sinal- nipulated and diverted the information trainal, have become emblematic and about the incident, in order to cloak representative cases of this period of its involvement. According to state- violence, marked by the implementa- ments by the Army, the three union tion of disorienting strategies, fram- leaders attacked a military unit which ings of unionists, and the concealment was trying to rescue a kidnap victim, of the violent manifestations. and that reason justified the violent The facts occurred on August 5, response by the military, who also 2003, when three union leaders from guaranteed that they found weapons Arauca were extrajudicially executed and munitions with the unionists. by troops from the Reveis Pizarro Later, the Vice-Prosecutor General Mechanized group of the Colombian Luis Alberto Santana stated that the Army, according to what the National unionists did not die in combat as the Human Rights Unit of the Attorney Army had claimed, and instead they General’s Office has been able to had been assassinated. It is important establish. The victims were Leonel to mention that, at the time of their Goyeneche, Treasurer of the CUT death, the union leaders mentioned branch in that state, Jorge Eduardo above had precautionary measures as- Prieto Chamucero, Presidente of the signed to them by the Inter-American local Anthoc branch, and Alirio Mar- Commission of Human Rights. tinez, President of the Agricultural As another example, Luciano Workers Union. As part of this same Enrique Romero Molina, leader of incident, the President of the CUT Sinaltrainal, was assassinated in the Arauca, Samuel Morales Florez, and city of Valledupar, Cesar. According Raquel Castro, member of the Educa- to his union, Luciano was last seen tors Association of Arauca (Asedar), alive at approximately 9 PM at night were also detained. These three assas- on September 10, 2005. In the morn- 62 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical ing of September 11, his body was returned to the country at the begin- found bound, tortured, and stabbed ning of 2005. This case is part of the to death with 40 knife wounds. The generalized tendency in this period union leader also had precautionary to question the connections that some protection measures assigned to him murdered leaders had with the union by the Inter-American Commission movement, as one of the tactics used of Human Rights of the Organization by the national government to lower of American States. Luciano was 47 assassination statistics. The govern- years old, and had four children and ment did not report this case as an as- a partner, Ledys Mendoza. He had sassination againt a union leader, since worked for 20 years at the Nestle- at the moment of his murder, Luciano Cicolac plant in Valledupar, until he did not have any kind of link to the was fired on Octobre 22, 2002, for a company at the time of his death. supposed work stoppage which was One of the important cases with declared illegal by the Social Protec- regards to the analysis of anti-union tion Ministry. In the labor courts of violence against women workers is Valledupar, there was a lawsuit pend- the assassination of the union leader Carmen Eliza Nova on July 15, 2004 ing at the time of his death, filed by in the city of Bucaramanga. She was Luciano Romero against the compa- a union leader who was committed nies Nestle de Colombia S.A., Cicolac to the workers movement for over Ltda., and Dairy Partners America 28 years, and had occupied different Manufacturing Colombia, demanding posts within union Boards of Direc- that he be reinstated at his job. tors. At the time of her death, she had Luciano was an outstanding leader been elected to the leadership of the of Sinaltrainal and at the time of Union of Hospital and Clinic Workers his death, was also a leader of the of Santander, Sintraclinicas, and she Solidarity with Political Prisoners left a five year old daugher orphaned. Committee, in which he carried out It is important to mention that after solidarity and humanitarian actions Carmen Eliza’s murder, a wave of for detainees. permanent harassment against union Due to death threats, he was forced leaders in the city of Bucaramanga to leave Valledupar on several occa- was unleashed. In particular, the sions. In 2004, he spent a number of President of Sintraclinicas, Teresa months in Gijon, Spain in a protectio- Baez, received many death threats na and solidarity program, but he had during this period. The impact of the bullets. Anti-union violence in numbers

In the 16 years between 1991-2006, 15 years, the statistic is more or less 2,245 unionists have been murdered constant, with a few variations, such in Colombia. Of this total number of as the drop in 2005 and the peaks in victims, 2,016 have been men and 229 2001 and 2002. women. If we take into account the 21 The paramilitary groups are pre- years between 1986 and the present sumably responsible for 276 assas- moment, 2,515 unionists have been sinations, which equals 12.7%, with murdered. In general, it is possible to guerrilla groups responsible for 140, say that on average in Colombia 140 or 6.4%, and state agents responsible unionists are murdered annually, even for 19 cases, or 0.8% of the total. In though if we take the last 21 years 39.2% of the cases, there is no infor- as our reference, this average drops mation whatsoever, and in 40.2% the slightly to the equally scandalous actor responsible for the crime was not statistic of 120 murders per year. able to be identified. Of the 446 cases 22% of the assassinations during with clear information on the pre- the1986-2006 period have been com- sumed responsibles, the paramilitary mitted against union leaders who are groups are presumably responsible for members of the Board of Directors of 62% of the murders, the guerrillas for their union organizations, which is 31.3%, the armed forces for 4.2% and equivalent to 484 murdered leaders, common criminals for 2.4%. with an annual average of 32 assas- In 1996, the greatest number of sinations. If we look at the number homicides was registered during the of murdered leaders during the last 15 year period, with a record number 64 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical of 275 assassinations. The years 1995, the most affected by the homicides, with 237 assassinations, 2001 with with 825 education sector workers 196, and 2002 with 186 also registered asssassinated. They are followed by high numbers of anti-union murders. the agricultural sector, with 790 ho- In 2005, the least number of as- micides, as well as the manufacturing sassinations was registered, with 70 sector unionists with 92, the mining unionists murdered, followed by 2006 sector unionists with 97, the electric with 72 assassinations, 1999 with 80 sector unionists with 85, the public cases registered, and 1991 with mur- administration sector with 53, and the der cases. health care sector with 52 unionists In relation to sectors, the union- assassinated. ists of the education sector have been

Total number of unionists assassinated 1991-2006 Year 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 No. 83 135 196 104 237 275 182 101 80 137 197 186 94 96 70 72

Total number of union leaders assassinated 1991-2006 Year 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 No. 12 33 24 36 36 28 39 29 23 33 65 50 38 26 12 12 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 65

Homicides of unionists by state January 1, 1991 – December 31, 2005 State Number of homicides Antioquia 1078 Atlántico 49 Amazonas 1 Arauca 64 Bogotá D.C. 37 Bolívar 51 Boyacá 12 Caldas 36 Caquetá 28 Casanare 13 Cauca 32 Cesar 93 Chocó 7 Córdoba 60 Cundinamarca 20 Guajira 12 Guaviare 8 Huila 13 Magdalena 86 Meta 35 Nariño 44 Norte de Santander 63 Putumayo 24 Quindío 6 Risaralda 40 Santander 141 Sucre 25 Tolima 30 Valle 107 Without information 30 Total 2,245 66 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical

From the table above, we can the violence towards other regions can definitively conclude that without a be made if we compare the homicide doubt, Antioquia has been the most statistics by year, in which we can dangerous state in Colombia for see that in some states, the murder union activity. Of all the homicides statistics are concentrated in the years committed against unionized work- posterior to 1998. For example, of the ers throughout national territory, 48% 57 homicides registered in the state have occurred in Antioquian territory. of Arauca, 41 murders, or 75% oc- This is equivalent to 1,078 homicides, curred from 1998 – 2004. Of the 47 a statistic that contundently reveals homicides registered in the state of At- the difficult situation that Antioquian lantico, 95% or 41 murders took place unions have had to face, especially during that same period. In the same during the 90s, when the great major- way, 79% of the homicides registered ity of the crimes were committed. Of in the state of Valle del Cauca, or 79 of the 1,078 assassinations registered, the 100 murders registered, occurred 947, or 89%, occurred in the period after 1999. These statistics allow us to 1991 – 2000. Antioquia is distantly fol- corroborate that since approximately lowed by other states, with Santander 1998, anti-union violence has moved registering 141 assassinations, Valle towards different regions of the coun- del Cauca with 107, Cesar with 93, try, and in particular towards places and Magdalena with 86. The rest of where territorial disputes by armed the states have statistics that oscilate actors – and more specifically by para- from10-50 murders registered. militaries – were taking place. From this panorama we can also In an inverse sense, we can cor- conclude that the anti-union violence roborate that as anti-union violence expressed in homicides has unfolded spread to other regions of the country, in almost the entire national territory. the homicides against unionists in Colombia is divided into 32 states, and Antioquia began to decline. This ten- in 29 of them assassinations of union- dency can be framed in the context of ists hae taken place, which is to say, in the “pacification” of the state, which is 91% of the national territory. to say, the installation and consolida- Another important consideration tion of a paramilitary project which with regards to the displacement of dominates the territory. 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 67

Homicides against unionists in the state of Antioquia 1991-2006 Año 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 Homicidios 31 72 179 41 197 209 97 36 34 51 44 47 12 11 4 10

The table above allows us to anal- decline from 1997 to 2006. During ize the tendencies of the murder sta- this latter period, the paramilitary tistics in the state of Antioquia during project to pacify Antioquian territory the last 16 years. We can see how the has already achieved its objective, statistics rise from 1991 to 1996 (the and thus paramilitary action spreads year in which the greatest number of towards other regions. murders are committed), and how they

Workers struggles and selective assassinations, a map of bullets and resistance

Final conclusions should be taken in to account that in During these 16 years of research, Colombia, the war and the armed ac- systematization, and analysis of the tors act as parallel, illegal institutions violations to the rights to life, liberty, that regulate labor conflicts. For that and physical integrity of Colombian reason, the anti-union violence can unionists, and taking in to consid- be described as a deliberate, strate- eration the patterns and manifesta- gic, and systematic behavior which tions of the observed violence, with obeys a specific interest, which is respect to the methods and modes of the annulment of union activities in the carrying out of that violence as the defense and promotion of labor well as the presumed victimizers and rights. These considerations show that victims, we have drawn the following the violations have been committed considerations. in moments marked by the increase The majority of violations of the in number of labor struggles and not rights of Colombian unionists are as part or consequence of the armed connected to labor conflicts, namely conflict, meaning that the unionists protests, work stoppages, colletive are not casual or collateral victims bargaining processes, and the cre- of the armed conflict. According to ation of new unions. Although these Alvaro Delgado Guzman’s analysis violations occurred in the context of of labor struggles in Colombia from the civil war, and were committed, 1975-2000, it can be said that: in the majority of the cases, by one “On observing the phenomenon of the armed actors in the war, it by region, we can find that the larg-

69 70 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical est number of strikes is concentrated tests and murders of unionists. These in seven states, in order of impor- statements do not imply a direct or tance: Antioquia, Valle del Cauca, exclusive correlation between strikes Santander, Bogota, Atlantico, Boli- and homicides, yet there is some kind var, and Magdalena. If we compare of undeniable relation between labor the participation of these states in the conflicts and anti-union violence. total number of labor conflicts, these The crisis of the Colombian union regions housed more than half of the movement cannot be explained by the strikes during the period (52.3%). A existente of a diffues and indiscrimi- second group, made up of La Gua- nate violence, as it is presented in or- jira, Cundinamarca,Cauca, Cordoba, der to shroud the real dimension of the Narino, Caldas, and Cesar, was the problem. On the contrary, this crisis scene of 24% o the conflicts, and the is marked by systematic, permanent, rest of the country contributed just and selective human rights violations 5%”.1 of Colombian workers, in a general It is striking how a map of the context of impunity which proves the homicides against unionists in Co- fragility of our democracy, and as it lombia exactly coincides with the map has been said, the distance that exists of strike actions during the period in between the country on paper, which consideration. As we stated earlier, respects the fundamental right to as- more than half of the murders of sociation, and the real country, where unionists in the country are concen- the rights of unionists are constantly trated in Antioquia, and likewise, a violated. similar percentage of labor protests The humanitarian crisis that the have occurred in that state, if we Colombian union movement is ex- look at the national context. We can periencing evidences, among other observe a similar phenomenon with things, the historical incapacity of the respect to the states of Valle del Cauca State to guarantee the full realization and Santander. Although these terri- of union freedoms, as well as the tories cannot compare with the state delivery of State mediation functions of Antioquia, they both appear on the to private agents or illegal armed ac- national scene in second and third tors. In addition, this crisis brings to place in the number of both labor pro- light the vast network of institutions

1. Álvaro Delgado Guzmán 25 años de luchas sociales, p. 52-53. 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 71 and connections between legal and of unionists occurred during this illegal organizations that carry out the year, as well as the largest number of function of regulating labor conflicts workers killed in massacres, and the through the use of coercion, arms, and highest number of total human rights terror. To illustrate this tendency, we violations against Colombian work- can point to the alliances between the ers. Concretely, during that year, 284 DAS and paramilitary groups made unionists were assassinated through- with the intention of assassinating out the country, with 105 of them unionists, or to the assassinations of killed in massacres committed by the three union leaders in Arauca by armed actors in the banana producing Army soldiers. zone of Uraba. It should be repeated The 1986-1990 period was fun- that the serious humanitarian crisis damentally marked by assassinations that the union movement in the Uraba against union leaders and human region suffered during that year was rights defenders, in a scenario of the consequence of confrontations murky relations between Army of- between the FARC, EPL, and AUC. ficials, politicians, narcotraffickers, In 1997, the paramilitary project and paramilitaries, in which these begins to expand throughout the sinister anti-union ations have been national territory, and so new areas covered up in a desperate interest in dispute by armed actors begin to to create a confused history without surface. Along with these new terri- memory. This period is also character- torial disputes, the geographic spaces ized by the intense violence against in which the human rights of workers agricultural workers in Uraba at the are violated also begin to expand. The beginning of a regional conflict. phenomenon of forced displacement The five year period from 1991 of unionists begins to appear, taking – 1995 was marked by the recon- shape as an important instrument figuration of the war against the in the war strategy implemented by agricultural sector, and specifically armed actors in order to take over against agricultural workers affiiated territories in which they can exersize to Sintrainagro in the banana produc- sovereign control. ing zone of Uraba. 1996 was charac- In the period from 1998-2000, terized by the increase in number of anti-union human rights violations assassinations of Colombian workers. were marked by an increase in intimi- The greatest number of homicides dations, threats, violations of union 72 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical freedoms, and assassinations of high- Bucaramanga, and Medellin, as a con- ranking union leaders. The national sequence of the process of urbanization state sector strike, which lasted from of the armed conflict. October 7-26, 1998, left a final balance Finally, the chronological link of of nine unionists assassinated, perma- the chain which corresponds to the nent battles with the police and Army, 2002-2006 period is characterized intimidation of the participants in the by changes in the global logic of workers’ marches, and an increase in relations between the war and labor repression. conflicts. These changes are positive In the general context of the chang- with respect to the decrease in some es and links between labor conflicts indicators, but at the same time, there and the war, in 2001, an increase in are increases in some now traditional violence against union leaders can forms of anti-union violence, such as be obesrved. In that year, the greatest threats, forced displacement, murder number of homicides against union attempts, arrests, and harrassment. leaders is reported, with 63 cases. A The information that has been sys- parallel tendency is the increase in tematized and analyzed during these violence by guerrillas against workers, 21 years2 allows us to conclude that especially in the kidnappings of union- there has been no structural change ists. We can also observe the use of in the general panorama of human armed actors by municipal administra- rights violations against Colombian tions to create repressive contexts that unionists, since although during this would allow the application of Law 617, period there has been different mo- which mandated budget cuts for local dalities and expressions of violence, and state administrations. In addition the crimes continue to occur. This there was an increase in the violations proves that anti-union violence, far of the human rights of unionists in the from being a momentary event or important urban centers of the country, an expression of the internal armed such as Bogota, Cali, Barrancabermeja, conflict, strategically transforms it-

2. It was mentioned earlier that the ENS human rights database has records of the violations to life, liberty and physical integrity since 1991, however in the process of information recovery, we have added cases of homicides from the 1986-1990 period. However, for this period we have not recovered information on other types of violations, thus for this reason the analysis in this text of other types of violations distinct to murders is limited to the 16 year period (1991-2006). 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 73 self in accordance with regional and the right to union association in the provisional contexts, at the same time country. Instead, they are a contingent maintaining its deliberate interest in result of the logics of action and the quelling union action. In this way, the political and strategic calculations of tactical turns that occurred during the the actors in the armed conflict. The 2002-2006 period are part of the reg- unilateral ceasefire decreed by some istered tendencies that are evidenced sectors of paramilitarism impacted fa- throughout the entire 1986-2002 vorably on the reduction of the number period. The current variations do not of assassinations of unionists. alter the fundamental character of a The mark of the peace – or security selective, deliberate, and permanent – policies presents us with a historical violence. In addition, these changes fact, which is the scandalous increase do not transform the anti-union cul- in the repression of the right to union ture, which pegs unionized workers association, the tipification of any as a threat to the country’s internal union protest as illegal, the harrass- order. For that reason, we insist that ment of the State security forces of any in Colombia the armed and unarmed kind of protest movement, and a surge actors have a deliberate and calculated in the number of death threats against intention of weakening, ending, or unionists during crucial moments of restricting union activities. labor conflicts. This can be substanti- On the other hand, it is important ated with the arrests and restrictions to state that the general changes in to citizen mobilizations during the the forms of violence is related to the years 1998 and 1999 (when peace changes in war strategies, the territo- negotiations with the FARC were rial mobility of the actors in relation to taking place), as well as the increase the solution or diminishment of armed in arbitrary detentions, searches, and territorial disputes, and the implemen- harrassment by State security forces tation of processes aimed to stimulate against unions in the context of the peace talks and specific agreements current Uribe administration. The between the paramilitaries and the relations of the current government government. During this latest period, with the unions of Telecom, Bancafe, the positive variations in some indica- Ecopetrol, and Seguro Social prove tors are not the result of the application the existence, just as the El Tiempo of governmental policies deliberately newspaper stated in its May 1, 2005 oriented to guarantee and protect edition, of a “State that dialogues with 74 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical more facility with armed groups than has offered the necessary explanations with legitimate workers’ organiza- with respect to this situation, it is not tions, and which tends to criminalize acceptable from any point of view that social protest”. the President evades his responsibili- Finally, it is necessary to reaffirm ties through his customary tactic of that for the ENS, the sinister rela- sidetracking the charges by making tions between DAS functionaries and light of them and counter-attacking members of paramilitary groups, as the people who interrogate him about well as any type of link between State the facts. The victims of anti-union agents and irregular armed groups violence are not just simple statistics are the cause of great concern. The that can be manipulated according to Colombian government is obliged to government interests. A process to investigate and clearly respond to all achieve truth, justice, and reparations of the violations in which it is possibly based on a law that has been highly implicated in. It is equally worrying questioned, and lead by a government that an institution that is in charge of which cynically occults and dilutes its guaranteeing national security has put responsibilities, is not just unviable, itself at the service of illegal groups. but also from an ethical and political Until the national government as- viewpoint, absolutely absurd. sumes its political responsibilities and 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 75

Panorama de homicidios de sindicalistas en Colombia 1986 76 Cuaderno de Derechos Humanos Nº 18 – Escuela Nacional Sindical

Panorama de homicidios de sindicalistas en Colombia 1991 21 years of sistematic and selective assasinations 77

Panorama de homicidios de sindicalistas en Colombia 1991-2006

The unforgotten names List of the Colombian unionized workers who have been victims of assassinations, 1986-20061

“We live in a country that forgets its best faces, its best instincts, and life continues in its unrepairable monotony, turning its back on those who give us a reason to be and to keep on living. I know that they will lament your absence, and legitimate tears will wetten the eyesrthat saw you and knew you. Afterwards, everything will be erased, since this is a land which finds it easy to forget what we most treasure. Life here is turning into a frightening oblivion. This oblivion will arrive, and become a monster that razes everything, and they will forget everything, including your name. I know your death will be useless, and that your heroism will be added to everything else that is now absent”.2

1. The list of homicides that we present in this text is the result of meticulous on-going research of the assassination of Colombian unionists, through communication with unions, review of the national press, press releases, and information from other human rights databases. However, some assassinations are not registered due to the precariousness of the information or lack of knowledge of the events. We apologize for the names that do not appear in the list, and we also apologize for any possible errors that appear in the list. We hope that the readers of this text and the unions will work togethter with us to advance in the on-going process to dignify the Colombian unionists who have been victims of human rights violations. 2. Speech of Manuel Mejía Vallejo cited in the book El olvido que seremos of Héctor Abad Faciolince, Bogotá, Planeta, 2006 p. 247

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